Chopin

[Murieleirum]

4 minutes ago, swanbeau said:

i wonder what new spin he could add though? i used to think the camel+donut spin is too 'calm' (?) for that part but then he added the hand movement n it feels different already (i kinda wanted more stuffs to happen but like, what? i feel like changing position after donut in that part will disturb the flow, or maybe he could change position on the note where he start the hand movement but idk enough figure skating knowledge to imagine what position n i dont want him to scrap the hand movement completely)

 

the sit spin is his forte n he has a lot of variations on this, so this part could be more likely to get something new added. but personally, i just really want him to dicth the A spin n skate-over-head spin in the last part lol but since those variations are the ones he practices the most n therefore he could spin really fast (which fits with the music), i'm not holding my hopes up 

 

His hands movements are already enough for me. When I saw that new hand movement during donut spin the first time, I got chills down my spine... so even if he only touches up a bit of hand variations here and there, I'm happy either way. I'm happy that I get to live Chopin live for the first time, because I wasn't a fan of figure skating two years ago. *sighs* 

[swanbeau]

7 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

I'm happy that I get to live Chopin live for the first time

ooh i'm happy for you too! it's gonna be amazing! if only i could also watch him live (but its expensive ) but even if i have the means to do it i dont think i can, i cant even watch him live online bc i'd be too scared  the only time i watch him live online was world's sp this year bc i couldnt hold back n we all know what happened 

[Murieleirum]

4 minutes ago, swanbeau said:

ooh i'm happy for you too! it's gonna be amazing! if only i could also watch him live (but its expensive ) but even if i have the means to do it i dont think i can, i cant even watch him live online bc i'd be too scared  the only time i watch him live online was world's sp this year bc i couldnt hold back n we all know what happened 

 

Oh noes! You have to try and resist the anxiety, because watching him live, even in streaming, is the best thing ever! I mean, I am happy that I watched WTT SP live, even if it was a disaster! Because I lived that moment with him, somehow, and he feels all the energy that comes from all around the world. 

Plus, with him, you never know if you're gonna see history being made right in front of you... at Helsinki, I didn't realize I was looking at a New World Record while he was skating, because I was really just concentrating on the single elements, on breathing, on clapping and screaming when he got the jumps perfectly done, on following his body with my eyes as if I was the one holding him together. Okay I'm definitely a drama queen here, but, you know, this year you'll also be able to watch him live with all of us too, so you won't be alone to scream in anxiety and fear! xD 

[swanbeau]

3 hours ago, Murieleirum said:

 

Oh noes! You have to try and resist the anxiety, because watching him live, even in streaming, is the best thing ever! I mean, I am happy that I watched WTT SP live, even if it was a disaster! Because I lived that moment with him, somehow, and he feels all the energy that comes from all around the world. 

Plus, with him, you never know if you're gonna see history being made right in front of you... at Helsinki, I didn't realize I was looking at a New World Record while he was skating, because I was really just concentrating on the single elements, on breathing, on clapping and screaming when he got the jumps perfectly done, on following his body with my eyes as if I was the one holding him together. Okay I'm definitely a drama queen here, but, you know, this year you'll also be able to watch him live with all of us too, so you won't be alone to scream in anxiety and fear! xD 

i have this irrational fear whenever i watch my fave live that if they fail its bc i watch them live, its totally stupid but i cant get rid of it lol

 

i guess i'll try to watch ASCI live and then if it goes well... maybe i can conquer it

[Murieleirum]

32 minutes ago, swanbeau said:

i have this irrational fear whenever i watch my fave live that if they fail its bc i watch them live, its totally stupid but i cant get rid of it lol

 

i guess i'll try to watch ASCI live and then if it goes well... maybe i can conquer it

 

It's because you feel more involved... but it's just a little delusion, don't you worry. Seeing Chopin live, Chopin of all programs, must be really an amazing feeling. I can't wait for ACI, it's still too far away 

[ruruzest]

10 hours ago, swanbeau said:

!!!!! i know right?? im so, so glad that Chopin 3.0 put the two spins back there and change it so that the sit spin (and those hand movements) fit in with the climax more! i could scream about this forever. like, especially if you listen to the whole piece of Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23, you know that steps-quad-steps just doesnt cut it, or more like, the steps dont cut it. here, it used to be like this, from 1:19 to 1:51

yes, its a quad-triple combo n every steps n hand movements match with the music and its awesome already, (the quad-triple took the highlight though as i assume ppl will be more interested in whether he land it or not. its also the combo jump) but that climax part is long and imo every note there (1:19-1:51) deserves to be highlighted. i also feel like that note after the quad combo (1:39 -1:45) is such a waste to be only steps (yes yes he hopped and they did what they could with the choreography and i still appreciate it )

 

on another hand, the second half, 2:32 - 2:39, is really suited to steps-quad combo. that note at 2:39 especially feels really good after he lands the quad-triple. sorry yuzu that hand movement is not enough for me 

disclaimer, i'm not a die hard classical music fan nor i understand anything about classical music (other than occasionally making it my background music as i do something), but if you guys have moments to spare please listen to the whole piece of ballade no 1, here 0:00 - 09:00, its the first one. i feel like maybe people will have a new perspective after that (like i did before bc i initially doubt the placement of the first spin but its actually a perfect place and his hand movement in the donut spin improved it more )  sorry for blabbering i just really love this program, a lot. 

 

A bit off topic here but I listen to the whole song and have it on my phone, what a music piece! It carries a wide variety of emotion, I feel tentative, hesitation, anguish, rushing, tenderness....such a roller-coaster emotion ride... at the end, I feel like I'm falling down a staircase, occasionally get stuck and then keep rolling down...

And I love this interpretation the most, the same one Yuzu picks for his performance

 

 

[Aotoshiro]

Darn this thread...I cannot decide whether to let my geek girl self run wild and spew random facts about Chopin and op.23 that suggest Chopin and Yuzuru are match made in heaven (or at least, have terryfying number of similarities that make Yuzuru's interpretation so ridiculously good, _{not that I have something against Mao's ones or the others}), or not...

Also, to piano playing satellites-you guys are gods, I get dizzy just looking at the sheet of Ballade's prelude 

[Murieleirum]

19 minutes ago, Aotoshiro said:

Darn this thread...I cannot decide whether to let my geek girl self run wild and spew random facts about Chopin and op.23 that suggest Chopin and Yuzuru are match made in heaven (or at least, have terryfying number of similarities that make Yuzuru's interpretation so ridiculously good, _{not that I have something against Mao's ones or the others}), or not...

Also, to piano playing satellites-you guys are gods, I get dizzy just looking at the sheet of Ballade's prelude 

 

Yes please, do spew those random facts! I barely studied Chopin's life during music history, so I am a huge ignorant about him. I wanna know all the geeky stuff <3

[Aotoshiro]

7 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

 

Yes please, do spew those random facts! I barely studied Chopin's life during music history, so I am a huge ignorant about him. I wanna know all the geeky stuff <3

...I tried to write them, but my English coherency slowly falls apart, since I'm currently a mix of absolutely excited and dead tired, so all the languages I learned and have any basic knowledge of try to spill and mix into something along the lines of "adnshrjsekc hicm uw, they're  so great together, if they lived in the same timeline they would be headphone fanatic buddies belonging to a wonder child club" (Chopin had his first concert at the age of 7/8, his first work was published a year later, Yuzuru got his Novice gold not even six years after starting to skate, so...), I'll try to form a more coherent fact spewing tommorrow (plus, will do some fact checks, since few sources have questionable choice of words I don't believe a romantic composer would use, as they want us to believe...)

[swanbeau]

@Aotoshiro please, i'd love to hear you (or others) talk about chopin n yuzuru's interpretation!   yuzuru and romantic music match really well, i'm so glad he chose (and continue to develop) op 23 to skate to bc it's my favorite ballade

[Aotoshiro]

@swanbeau it's also the very first ballade he composed, or more like, sketched. But a bit of history first, if you don't mind: under spoiler, because I wrote waaay too much of it xD

Spoiler

 

Chopin was born in 1810, so technically, he belonged to the first/second generation of Poles born under occupation, as the partition of Poland got finalized in 1795 with the so-called Third Partition, and his parents remembered the Commonwealth times. His father was a French teacher, who moved to Poland at 16 yo, and that's why a lot of people tend to mess up Chopin's nationality(Either French or German,  since the region Chopin family's name came from was on the border of France and Germany, during the I WW propaganda suggested he was actually German xD). Anyway, as I mentioned before, he started learning piano in 1816 (actually, he was four when he first touched it, his mother was his first teacher around 1814-15), literally two years ater he performed in front of the Great Prince Constantin (he was brother of the tsar, and basically a ruler of eastern part of Poland), and presented unknown to anybody march so well done, the Prince ordered him to replay it-yep, an eight year old's composition. A year later, his main protector, who doubled as employer to Chopin's father few years earlier, published first compositions.

Skip forward seven years, and the boy performs in front of the Russia's ruler himself. His teacher in high school was Elsner, a bit less known compositor, who by third year of teaching Chopin summed him up as 'musical genius' -Fryderyk was nineteen at the time. (1829)

Another fast forward and he leaves Poland for the third time (first was a trip to Berlin, then to Vienna)- it will turn out later, it's for good- in 1830, literally weeks before the November uprising, in which he cannot participate due to his health issues. He's in Vienna when the uprising ends (or, more like, is crushed), and while only around 1835-36 it's published, a lot of people believe first sketches of op.23, Ballad in g-minor were created in '31 in Vienna, after the fall of the uprising.

I'm going to skip a bit again. Chopin settled in Paris, like most of the Great Emmigration (Polish intelligence threatened in Poland due to political situation after November uprising, willingly -or not so willingly- leaving the country to continue to create Polish culture in foreign countries; since French was basically a XIXth century's English, most of them went to Switzerland and France), and quickly became a star (he got a title of a "piano's poet" there), but due to hard financial situation, started giving lessons. His students included well-known Polish noble families as well as future French pianists. As a teacher, he's said to be rather demanding and nervous (typical perfectionist...). One of his best friends there (aside of Polish Emmigration's Mickiewicz, whose ballads supposedly inspired Chopin's compositions) included Franc Liszt, with whom Chopin often discussed about who was technically more genial between Bethoveen and Mozart (Chopin was in  team Mozart, if I remember correctly), and Julian Fontana, second best Polish composer of romantism epoque, who often is said to live in Chopin's shadow (they were learning under the same teacher in the same class, and were known to be friends, so I'm not sure if he felt bothered by Chopin).

After few romantic adventures his already fragile health decline even more, and additionally in 1848 one of the doctors Chopin himself wrote about as the "one knowing how to help me" dies. A year later, Chopin follows in his steps, trying hard to reunite with at least his older sister before the death. It is not sure whether Ludwika Chopin managed to arrive on time, but it's confirmed that she knew the results of autopsy (a controversial move, but Chopin himself wished for it), and was the one who smuggled Chopin's heart back to Poland.

 

As for the cause of Chopin's death (he was 39, that was too soon even for XIX century), original reason stated was tuberculosis, even if autopsy didn't register the lung changes usual for this illness. In 90. and then at the beginning of XXI century appeared a theory that it was cystic fibrosis, genetical illness, which also killed his younger sister Emilia (she died at 14), and shortened lifespam of his older sister (she was 48). It's still unconfirmed, though.

 

As for what Yuzuru has to do with Chopin... Let's start from the end xD Chopin's music influenced a lot of composers that came after him, including the Great Five of Russia, and especially Scriabin. Yep, the guy from Etude Patetico. While Chopin's Etude "Revolutionary" doesn't sound all that similar, Scriabin himself quoted  Chopin as his inspiration.

 

Second is a bit on physical side- Chopin is known to reach height of 170, but barely managed to weight 45 kilos, due to his health and intolerance to fat (especially pork). So basically, he'd be as skinny or even skinnier than Yuzuru at the beginning of his career was. And apparently, as hardcore perfectionist, if comments of his students are anything to go by.

 

Third, te circumstances in which first sketches of Ballade got created. He's the first gen of the occupied Poland, so his parents still remember the times of Poland existing as a country, and his generation was believed to free it (spoiler: since 1995, Poland didn't exist for 123 years, with the exception of Turkey, that didn't accept the documents legalising Poland's partition between Austria, Prussia and Russia-Thank you, Turkey), and the result of the November Uprising was literally crushing, as Poles lost most of their high-level officers, and intelligence had to run for their life. In that aspect, Ballade mixes the fresh memories of happy school days Chopin freshly graduated from, with the disaster that was the fall of uprising and his own inability to do anything to aid the case, despite his wishes to do so. So, imagine a tall but lithe boy in a loose shirt, moving softly, smoothly one moment, then starting to gain momentum, almost thrashing around with the power of the feelings that he has...oh wait, no need to imagine.

 

Fourth, something that doesn't come across in the bio (can you even call it that xD) I wrote, but Chopin is hinted to be an universal genius, as he and his little sister Emilia tended to write comedies and prose "for fun", anecdotes speak about Chopin getting caught at drawing during the lesson, but the teacher being so impressed with the art that instead of punishing, he praises Chopin, and Balzac, one of Chopin's French friends mentioned that Chopin had a "terryfying talent" for imitiating whoever he wanted. Additional bonus was that Chiopin was also a very good speaker...does it remind you of someone?

[Hydroblade]

@Aotoshiro thanks for the read  Chopin is one of my favorite composers but admittedly, i've never delved too much into his life. And your comparisons are great  

[kaeryth]

@Aotoshiro, thank you for taking the time to write your views about Chopin  how it relates to Yuzu. That was an amazing read! Also, knowing how meticulous Yuzu is about his programs you can bet that he's also researched about Chopin and must've been pleased with the parallels - this might also be the reason he feels a connection to Chopin as a program.

[kaeryth]

 

[ralucutzagy]

Beautiful lines!