Here is an original hour-long podcast which will take you in the footsteps of the 19th century’s most beloved and most played piano composer in the world : Frédéric Chopin ! His compositions are reconfigured or remixed in many popular songs and are often heard in cinema as well as in the theater.

The music of Frédéric Chopin is part of our soundscape. Its humanity, its refinement and its modernity have enabled it to successfully cross over centuries. This great composer lived only 39 short years, during which he gave only a few rare concerts (which he hardly appreciated).

So here we are going to discuss a relatively undocumented musical event (rich in anecdotes) : Frédéric Chopin's concert at the Hôtel-de-Ville in Rouen on the evening of March 12, 1838. Whether you are a music lover, passionate about history or simply of a curious temperament, I invite you to immerse yourself in this fascinating story, alone or with your family. The music terms have been simplified to the maximum to make the story accessible to as many people as possible.

Have a good sound journey to the 19th century, don’t hesitate to share this original episode produced by the Safeguarding of the Acoustic Heritage (Sauvegarde du Patrimoine Acoustique) !

For any broadcast request, you can contact me at this address : patrimoineacoustique@gmail.com

Writing, editing, acoustic reconstruction, graphic charter & mastering : Nicolas Labatut

Voices in order of appearance :

Jason Lytle (Title Introduction), Renée Clancy (Narrator), charlotte etc. (George Sand), Xavier Mathès (Robert Schumann), Troy von Balthazar (Frédéric Chopin), Nicolas Labatut (M.P.), Anne-Sophie Thouary (Anonymous reader), Sean Kirkpatrick (Journalist), Andy Richards (Journalist), Mark Charles Heidinger (Ernest Legouvé).

Translation of the podcast into English by Renée Clancy. Special pronunciation thanks to Dorota Deschaume Kycia (Polish), Oliver Kruppa (German), and Nicolas Caiazzo (Italian). And a special thanks to Chris Purcell, Eric Sennevoight, and Mark Charles Heidinger for their linguistic input.

Sound recordings : Different soundscapes recorded in situ (Flaubert Museum & Monumental Cemetery of Rouen*) by Nicolas Labatut in July 2022. [*The spoken voices during these two outdoor extracts were actually recorded in the studio.] Samples of Pianoforte Broadwood 1847 played in MIDI + reverberations recorded at the Medium Musique store (Rouen-Fr). Tours's concert documented by Jean Jude, Chopin specialist, in "Aspects de la vie musicale tourangelle dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle" whom I thank for these discussions. Details about Chopin's concert in Paris at the Hôtel de Monaco were documented by Piotr Witt in his book "Chopin à Paris - une affaire non classée" Ed. Szansa-Chance. Details on the orchestration of the concerto Op.11 taken from Halina Goldberg's research "Chamber Arrangements of Chopin's Concert Works".

The musical excerpts used are mainly from the Musopen - The Complete Chopin Collection - Creative Commons project (see details of the performers and the technical means used by referring to the “Tracklist” chapter from the dedicated Facebook / Youtube / Twitter / BandCamp / Instagram pages).

3D portrait by Hadi Karimi: "Portrait of Frédéric Chopin" CC-BY-SA 4.0 (2020). Sacem T-312.149.881.1 - Episode original en Français sur Anchor [Writing a musical research article related to this podcast in progress] - Good listening !