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24 CHOPIN_POLONIA
The decisive blow in this radical transformation was struck in late August 1830.
Chopin was staying in Stuttgart when he learned of the Russian army’s repression
of the nationalist insurrection that had flared up in Warsaw. Having already
conqueredVienna, and nowcertain hemust remain an exile – itmay be noted that,
though Chopinwas always free to return home, he never wished to – the composer
extended his journey as far as Paris, choosing France as his second homeland. After
all, his father was of pure French stock, born in the Vosges.
The beginnings were difficult: he believed his Viennese reputation had preceded
him. But almost nothingwas known of it in the Parisian salons, where the reigning
geniuseswere Liszt and – again! –Thalberg.Yet hewas to owe his first appearances
in the high society of musical Paris to Franz Liszt and the latter’s natural altruism.
The Hungarian virtuoso admitted hewas enthralled by the Polishmusician’s poetic
instinct.
Suddenly a cry rends the air. It is the great Polonaise in E flat minor op.26 no.2,
marked Maestoso: the rumblings in the bass of the keyboard introduce a dramatic
tension that the arching melody does not resolve. This sombre revolt, this lofty
tone, are the echo of the drama that had recently been played out inWarsaw. But
as always in Chopin, everything shifts from the historical to the particular, from the
external to the intimate, from the political to the sensitive, and the density of his
discourse is not only the expression of a public vindictiveness, but also, and in the
first place, the profundity of an inward portrait.