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INTERNATIONALFEDERATION OF CHOPIN SOCIETES

On the trail of Mazurkain A-flat, opus 24, n° 3

by Jens A. Jorgensen

In 2003, it was discovered that JennyLind (1820-1887), the Swedish soprano andphilanthropist, sang her own arrangementsof four Chopin mazurkas for Queen Victoriain 1855 and 1856. Prof. Irena Poniatowska,President of the Polish Chopin Academy,regarded this discovery as "very important"in the 2003 annual issue of Chopin in theWorld. The discovery prompts a new look atthe historical trail of Mazurka in A-flat, op.24, n° 3. According to sources cited below, itturns out that Chopin's original autographtook an unexpected route over the next 100+years - which eventually brought it backfrom Canada to Poland in 1959 aboard theSwedish liner M/S Stockholm.

Autographs in LeipzigChopin composed the four Mazurkas

opus 24 in 1834-1835. According to theNational Library in Warsaw, he dedicatedone of two autographs of the third mazurka« a Mme Linde, 22 Sept. Dresden 1835 », thewife of the lexicographer Samuel BogumilLinde (this autograph disappeared duringWorld War II). Chopin sent Mazurkas op. 24to Breitkopf & Hartel in Leipzig for publica-tion in 1836. The autographs remained therein the archives, together with other originalChopin manuscripts, till 1936.

Singing for Queen VictoriaJenny Lind sang her arrangement of

Mazurka in A-flat, op. 24, n° 3 for QueenVictoria (1819-1901) at Windsor Castle on28 December 1855. Her Memoir (1891) statesthat it was "set to Italian words* for SopranoVoice with Pianoforte obligato", and that shesang "Chopin's melody ... as written by theComposer". - * Translated: "My poor heart,forget the pain / oh divine pleasure of love /In search of love / Oh hope coming from thesky / faithful love will never die / faithful lovewill never die / no, no, no, no, no, no / Stayfaithful to your love / to the sweet faithfullove / that will never die!".

Jenny Lind started withChopin's Mazurkas op. 50, n° 2in A-flat; then op. 30, n° 1 in C-minor and op. 30, n° 2 in B-minor(their text has so far not beenfound). She concluded with op.24, n° 3 in A-flat. These four maz-urkas formed what was presentedas RECUEIL DE MAZOURKASde F. Chopin ("This Recueil has

to The Royal Archives, Queen Victoria notedin her Journal that it was the first time sheheard Jenny Lind sing for seven years and that"Jenny Lind sang more beautifully than ever,& certainly there is no one at present, at alllike her, but she is much alteredin appearance".

Jenny L i n d p e r f o r m e dagain Recueil de Mazourkasde F. Chopin for the Queen atBuckingham Palace on 30 May1856. The original programmeshows that she . and PaulineViardot also sang Meyerbeer'sduo La mere grand: "Allons, ren-trez voici Forage".

Jenny Lind

Emotional attachmentAn explanation of Jenny Lind's emotional

attachment to Chopin's music was uncov-ered as late as in 2003. British governmentpapers and other new evidence reveal thatshe travelled incognito to Paris in May 1849- with the knowledge of Queen Victoria - inan unsuccessful attempt to marry Chopin.While Chopin wrote upbeat letters abouttheir encounters in 1848-1849, Jenny Lindalways kept her relationship to Chopin secret.These findings were reviewed with Chopinexperts in Warsaw on 1 March 2004.

Liszt, Brahms, MoschelesJenny Lind continued in 1856-1858 to sing

to opus 24, n° 3 at her European concert tourthat included Bohemia, Britain, Germany,Holland and Poland (Wroctaw, Gdansk andPoznari). Otto Jahn, the philologist andwriter, says in Die Grenzboten that JennyLind had planned to perform the Mazurkaat the Music Festival in Diisseldorf in 1856,but replaced it with an aria from Bellini'sBeatrice di Tenda. Jahn describes Jenny Lindas a "queen" sitting at the top of the tableflanked by "knights" including Liszt, Brahms,Jahn and Hanslick. Later, Liszt notes in a longletter of 3 January 1857 to Herr von Turanyi,

Musical Conductor of the Townof Aix-la-Chapelle (translated):"Frau Lind-Goldschmidt standsas incomparable in her glitteringrenown as a singer as Handel inhis as a composer".

J e n n y L i n d ' s M e m o i robserves: "Moscheles, hav-ing heard this piece [op. 24,n° 3], in November 1857, at the

in his Diary the strain in bar 10, going up to thehigh C, differently, He wrote from recollectiononly; but in this form it has found a place notonly in his Biography (Vol. II, London 1873)but also in Grove's Dictionary of Music Vol. II,page 141, and possibly elsewhere."

To Canada in 1940In 1936, Breitkopf & Hartel decided

to sell its Chopin collection. The NationalLibrary in Warsaw explains it consisted of49 compositions within 20 opus numbers

- including the four Mazurkasop. 24 as well as such key worksas Concerto in F-minor, op. 21;Etude N° 1 and Etude N° 8, op.25; and Fantaisie in F-minor,op. 49. At the initiative of theFryderyk Chopin Institute,the Government of Polandacquired this collection that,following an exhibition in Paris,was transferred to Warsaw in

early 1938. In August 1939, however, whenwar was seen as imminent, it was decided toevacuate the above Chopin collection as wellas precious medieval manuscripts. The initialdestination was Romania.

At the same time, in September, anotherportion of Poland's national art treasureslocated at Wawel Royal Castle in Krakowwas also evacuated. An article of 29 August1999 in The Ottawa Citizen by Kelly Egandescribes the spectacular and heroic escape

not been published"). According Queen Victoria Gewandhaus at Leipzig, entered

Coronation sword

that started aboard a 60-meter camouflagedcoal barge on the Vistula river, while Germantanks rumbled on the west bank. After theperilous journey to Romania and then viaMalta to France and England, all the treas-ures finally arrived at Clyde Port of Greenockin Scotland. They were loaded in trunksaboard M/S Batory of the Gdynia AmericaLine. The treasures reached Halifax, Canadaon 13 July 1940 and were eventually offeredsafe storage in Ottawa, Ontario and Quebec.

According to The Ottawa Citizen (1999),the heavy trunks contained Chopin's works;

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M/S Batory

religious manuscripts from the 13th cen-tury; a two-volume Johann Gutenberg Bible;Szczerbiec, the bejewelled sword used since1320 for the crowning of Polish kings; 136Flemish tapestries (arrases) from the 16th

century; hundreds of pieces of gold and silvercups; and many other national treasures.Onboard was also a huge cache of gold barsfrom the Bank of England.

Issues resolved by 1959-1961It took 19 to 21 years to return Chopin's

manuscripts and most of the other treas-ures to Poland. In the Cold War climate, thedelay was caused by issues on their wherea-bouts and safety, legal ownership, custodyresponsibility, release procedures, indemnityprotection, and politics. Today, declassified1952-1957 secret files of the Government ofCanada provide an interesting window tothese "perplexing" issues. The issues involvedthe Government of Canada and provincial

authorities, the communist government inWarsaw, the Polish government-in-exile inLondon, United Nations, UNESCO, nationalcultural institutions, Polish emigre groups,the Catholic Church, a large bank, the media,and private individuals.

For example, the Acting Under-Secretaryof State for External Affairs, Canada, observesin a 'secret letter' of 9 December 1953: "There

has been a strange silence on their part [thePolish Government] since the campaign overthe Chopin manuscripts". Lester B. Pearson,Secretary of State for External Affairs, concludes

in a long 'secret memorandum' of 1 August1956 to Cabinet: "... unless the CanadianGovernment can give some satisfaction to thePolish Government, we will almost certainly befaced with a dispute in the United Nations or inthe International Court of Justice".

Pearson also attaches a draft Agreementto enable the release of "the two trunks [withChopin's manuscripts, the bible, the sword,and other particularly important items] heldin the vaults of the Bank of Montreal inOttawa". Given the royal audience in 1855and 1856, it is no small coincidence that the1956 Agreement is written "on behalf of HerMajesty the Queen in right of Canada".

Finally, the above two trunks departed

in January 1959; a maritime source says viaNew York aboard the Swedish liner M/SStockholm. They reached Warsaw by train

on 3 February 1959. The risks of transatlantictravel were emphasized by the collision ofM/S Stockholm in July 1956 with the ItalianTS/S Andrea Doria. The latter sank with itscargo and the loss of 47 lives.

The return of the manuscripts was cel-ebrated with exhibitions at the NationalMuseum and Wawel Royal Castle - in timefor the 150th anniversary of Chopin's birth-day in 1960. The Castle confirms that thecollection of Flemish tapestries that hadbelonged to King Sigismund II Augustus(1548-1572) came back to Krakow as lateas 1961. [Incidentally, when Sigismund IIdied childless, the son of his sister and the

M/S Stockholm

Swedish King Johan III was elected King ofPoland as Zygmunt III Waza (1587-1632)and from 1592 to 1599 also King of Sweden(as Sigismund I)]. - However, two sourcesbelieve that not all the remaining treasureswent back home. Eight of 32 trunks appearto be missing.

EpilogueIn 1985, the National Library in Warsaw

published F. Chopin: 4 Mazurki opus 24, a500-copy facsimile edition of the originalmanuscript that Chopin had dedicated tohis friend "Monsieur le Comte de Perthuis"

(1'officier d'ordonnance de Louis-Philippe, Roides Francais). The edition was issued as a trib-ute to the 11th Frederick Chopin InternationalPiano Competition. The foreword, written byMrs Wanda Bogdany-Popielowa, refers to the1940-1959 sojourn in Canada.

On 6 April 2004, Mazurka in A-flat,op. 24, n° 3 was performed "in the honour ofHer Majesty the Queen" at the Embassy ofSweden, Warsaw in the final act of the his-torically correct musical drama NightingaleOpus 24. The objective of this premierewas to celebrate the new Europe with aninternational audience. It included high-levelrepresentatives of Polish cultural institu-

tions, seven ambassadors, and industry VIPs.The day after, the British Ambassador wroteto his government: "The drama ingeniouslybrought together historical and musical ele-ments from all over Europe ... to bring out theseamlessness of great European culture."

The trail of Chopin's Mazurka will returnto Canada in March 2005. Nightingale Opus24 will be performed in Toronto by studentsof the Royal Conservatory of Music at theRoyal Ontario Museum. Recognizing thatChopin died of tuberculosis and Jenny Lindraised funds to fight this infectious disease,the City of Toronto will in the context ofWorld TB Day 2005 be using great culture toemphasize that TB has today, in the 21st cen-tury, become a dangerous global epidemic.

- In a separate initiative, the Mazurka will

take centre stage in a new film project Opus24 based on the musical drama.

Jens A. JorgensenPresident, Icons of Europe, Brussels

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Manuscript of Mazurka op. 24 no 3

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