Music history · 3 min read ·
Mozart in London, Chopin in Paris
A Mozart concert in London, scores on Rue de Rome and a visit to Chopin in Paris: memories of a trip in 2012.
One of the great wonders of getting to know Europe is being able to encounter art so easily. To see a painting by Monet, you only need to enter a major museum such as the National Gallery in London, and there will be several.
In 2012, I had the opportunity to visit London and see a little of this wonderful city and how art, especially music, is expressed there. On the day we visited the National Gallery and saw this wonderful painting above, we went into St Martin-in-the-Fields church, right next door. The present building was constructed between 1721 and 1726 (although a church is known to have existed on the site since the Middle Ages), and Handel played the organ at its inauguration in 1726. The church maintains an active concert program, ranging from jazz to classical music. It is worth setting aside a few pounds to attend a concert there. The website has the concert program, so you can plan your visit to attend a particular performance. (http://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/music/)
On the day we visited, we decided to buy a ticket for a concert celebrating Mozart’s 256th birthday, on January 27, 2012, performed by the Trafalgar Sinfonia. It was a fantastic experience! I had never heard a live orchestra that was so coordinated and had such a beautiful sound.
After London, we went to Paris, and as a great Chopin fan, I had to visit his grave at Père Lachaise cemetery. First, I made a brief stop on Rue de Rome, a well-known street in Paris with shops selling instruments, CDs, records and sheet music, and I found a few treasures.
When I arrived at the cemetery, I went straight to his grave, small and simple, with his face in profile and a marble muse sculpted by Auguste Clésinger. Chopin was a Polish composer born in 1810 in the town of Zelazowa Wola. He left the country in 1830 during the Warsaw uprising, settling first in Vienna and then in Paris, never returning to his homeland. He was one of the great piano composers of the Romantic period, and his best-known works include the Grande valse brillante, Op. 18 (anyone who has watched Bugs Bunny will recognize this piece quickly), the Nocturne, Op. 9 No. 2, and the Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 35 (which contains the well-known Funeral March).
To finish, here is a playlist with a little Mozart and Chopin.
Get my playlist with a little Mozart and Chopin
Claude Monet, The Water-Lily Pond — National Gallery.
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Sylvia de Morais. Informational content, reviewed with sources.