This change to the traditional five year-cycle was caused by the reconstruction of the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, which was promoted soon afterwards The next Competition was organised six years later, in 1955. The Competition became the culmination of the Chopin Year, celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the death of this great composer. The first post-war and the fourth International Fryderyk Chopin Competition took place in 1949, in the "Roma" concert hall, which is still standing in Nowogrodzka Str., the temporary home of the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Opera.
The 1942 Competition was not held owing to the Second World War,Īnd the Competition could not be continued until several The next Competitions in 19 were also held there, at a five year interval, in accordance with the rules of the organisers. The first Chopin Competition took place on 23-30 January 1927 in the concert hall of the Warsaw Philharmonic. Jerzy Zurawlew (1887-1980), an outstanding Polish pianist, teacher and composer. The initiator of the Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition was Prof. In the seventy years of its existence, the competition has evolved and transformed itself, altered and improved its form, and created its own extensive tradition. The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition is one of the oldest events of its type in the world, and enjoys great prestige and universal renown. Afterwards his body was buried at Père Lachaise cemetery in the 20th arrondissement, but according to his wishes his heart was returned to Warsaw, where today it is entombed in a pillar of the Holy Cross Church next door to his childhood home.The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw His funeral was held two weeks later in la Madeleine Church in Paris, and people came from as far as London, Vienna & Berlin hoping to attend. The cause of death was declared tuberculosis, again a topic of debate. He suffered from ill health throughout his life, and after a tour to Great Britain in 1848, he returned to Paris where a year later he died on the 17th of October 1849. His sexuality and relationships, particularly with the French writer Aurore Dudevant (better known by her pen name George Sand), are still the topic of intense scrutiny & debate by historians. In Paris he became acquainted with a generation of young composers and artists, amongst them them the Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt, and the French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix. Here he made his name as a composer and instructor, preferring to perform in the intimate atmosphere of the salons and his own Parisian apartment, amongst friends, patrons and colleagues, to the large concert halls which he despised. Chopin would spend the last 19 years of his life living amongst his fellow Polish exiles in Paris. The period of the 'Great Emigration' followed, with many Poles fleeing Russian-partitioned Poland. En route to Paris he heard news of the defeat of the Polish November 1830/31 Uprising by Russian forces.
Instead a period in Vienna was followed by a trip to Paris. At the age of 20 Chopin left Warsaw for Western Europe, intending to spend time performing in Germany & Italy.