Andorra Life of Frederic Chopin 8 Coin Set 2009 Proof Silver Crowns Mint Packaging

Frederic Chopin, (1 March 1810 ñ 17 October 1849), was a Polish-French composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music. He was born in the village of Zelazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a French-expatriate father and Polish mother. He was considered a child-prodigy pianist. At the age of 20, on November 2nd, 1830, he left Warsaw for Austria, intending to go on to Italy. The outbreak of the Polish November Uprising 27 days later, and its subsequent suppression by the Russian Empire, led to his becoming one of many expatriates of the Polish Great Emigration. In Paris, Chopin made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher, while giving few public performances. Though an ardent Polish patriot, in France he used the French versions of his given names and traveled on a French passport, possibly to avoid having to rely on Imperial Russian documents. After ill-fated romantic involvements with Polish women, from 1837 to 1847 he had a turbulent relationship with the French novelist Aurore Dupin, better known by her pseudonym, George Sand. For the greater part of his life Chopin suffered from poor health; he died in Paris in 1849, aged thirty-nine, of pulmonary tuberculosis. The great majority of Chopin’s compositions were written for the piano as solo instrument; all of his extant works feature the piano in one way or another. Though technically demanding, they emphasize nuance and expressive depth rather than sheer virtuosity. Chopin invented musical forms such as the instrumental ballade and was responsible for major innovations in the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, Ètude, impromptu and prÈlude. The eight coins depict the following topics: Chopinís first public performance for Alexander I in Warsaw in 1821, his debut at the Kaertnetor Theater in Vienna in 1829, the Polonaise, painted by Teofil Kwiatkowski in Paris in 1832, his fiancÈe Maria Wodzinskaís self portrait in Dresden in 1836, Chopin and George Sand (Aurore Dupin ) in Mallorca in 1838, the real piano of Chopin and his portrait in Paris in 1848, a cast of his hand and signature in Paris in 1849 and finally, the tomb of Chopin in the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw in 1849.