Chopin and the Polish soul by Rosamund Bartlett

Arts Society South Downs on Chopin and the Poles

At the end of the 17th century Poland was the largest state in Europe, but within a hundred years it had been partitioned by its powerful neighbours and partly absorbed into the Russian empire. The Poles reacted to Russia’s brutal suppression of their 1830 Uprising by developing a strong cultural identity in which artists played a key role.

This lecture shows how Chopin and his revolutionary Polonaises and Mazurkas came to be seen as an indispensable symbol of the Polish nation, both during his lifetime, and in the years before Poland regained its independence in 1918.

Coffee is served from 9.50 a.m.-10.20 a.m. prior to lecture start at 10.45 a.m.