Chopin's Piano: In Search of the Instrument That Transformed Music by Paul Kildea (review)

While Kildea writes from a musician's sensibility, with deep knowledge of nineteenth-century European music, evident in his analyses of musical scores, music history, piano construction, and musical performance, this book is interspersed with a great deal of supporting background related to Romanticism, literature, art, history, and civilization. Kildea's project of tracking down the piano that Frédéric Chopin used while staying in Majorca with George Sand is the connecting thread that leads him from mid-nineteenth-century France to the end of World War II, immersing the reader in fascinating accounts of how changes in society and culture impacted musicianship through these decades. The first part of this work focuses on the period during which Chopin created several of his twenty-four Préludes on a humble instrument, a pianino built by local craftsman Juan Bauza. It is around the destiny of this piano that Kildea centers his study of Chopin's influence on music and the transformation of piano performance. While he delves into historical events, politics, literature, art, and societal change, Kildea studies Chopin's compositions, which were innovative and enigmatic, but not always appreciated by critics. The reader will perhaps listen to the Préludes differently after reading Kildea's exacting explications of them. After Chopin's death in 1849, major historical events brought about changes in culture and society. At the same time, innovations in piano construction made by Henry Steinway Jr. created a revolution in piano sound and performance. Because Chopin's music had been traditionally characterized as delicate in style, supposedly reflecting the composer's frailty and feminine sensibility, the modern piano with its powerful resonances posed a dilemma on how to perform his works. Pianists had to choose between exploiting the potential of the new pianos or honoring the characteristics of the older instruments used in composing the pieces. Kildea examines how performers such as Anton Rubenstein, Carl Tausig, and Hans von Bülow interpreted the composer differently. The extraordinary career and mission of the harpsichordist and music scholar Wanda Landowska constitutes the second half of Kildea's book. The link between Landowska and Chopin is the Bauza piano, which she acquired in 1913. During her career Landowska built a valuable collection of harpsichords, pianos, manuscripts, and research library. Kildea details this career and traces the tragic loss of this collection to the Nazis during World War II. He conducted extensive research of Nazi records and other accounts in order to discover the fate of Landowska's instruments, evoking treachery among art dealers and musicians alike while providing an account of the broad-reaching plunder that occurred. The extent of Kildea's research is impressive as he gives intimate details of the lives of musicians and others during these two periods. His work is complemented by a great number of precious historical images and photos of famous individuals, their living quarters, instruments (including the Bauza piano), musical scores, and other documents. With an engaging writing style, Kildea's book contains a compelling story to be enjoyed by music lovers, be they music specialists or not.