Chopin remembered Vienna as the city where he had made an instant success with his music, so when, after years at home in Warsaw, he returned to Vienna, he was heartsick to find only a cool welcome awaiting him. Vienna wanted to dance and sing and forget war and Poland was on the brink of war. In Paris, however, Chopin found himself warmly welcomed; his concerts became the vogue; his days were crowded with both gaiety and the work he loved. Years passed and the world hailed his greatest compositions. Then ill health began making inroads on his time and he went to Majorca, England, and...

Frederic Chopin, celebrated pianist and probably the greatest composer for the piano the world has ever known, was born in a little cottage in Poland on the estate of the Count Skarbek, whose children were tutored by Chopin'sfather, Nicolas. Chopinloved music from babyhood, and when the family moved to Warsaw a few years after his birth, he was placed under the tutelage of the best masters of music in Poland. His astounding performance, playing the solo part of a difficult concerto with the full Warsaw orchestra, when only nine years of age marked little Frederic as the genius he was. Through...

This book is about the brilliant young Schubert, his merry friends, and their pranks and escapades, in most of which Franz is the hero. One of the most interesting stories in the book is the new light that is shed on the history of the Unfinished Symphony. It remained unfinished, not because of poverty, illness and discouragement, or because of the composer's early death. The real reason, according to the authors, was that Schubert's merry friends were starting for a picnic just when he was in the middle of it, and he went along. Before he left he stuffed the partly written score in his desk...