Delfina Potocka
Countess Delfina Potocka , b. Komar (born March 1807 in Kuryłowce Murowane , Podolia , † April 2, 1877 in Paris ) was a Polish noblewoman and close friend of the composer Frédéric Chopin and the poet Zygmunt Krasiński .
Life
She was the daughter of Stanisław Komar and Honorata Orłowska. In 1825 she married Count Mieczysław Potocki (1799–1878), with whom she later moved to Paris . There she became a piano student of Chopin, who dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor op. 21 to her as well as the famous waltz in D flat major op. 64 No. 1, the so-called "Minute Waltz ".
He also dedicated her sister, the Princess Ludmilla de Beauvau nee. Komar (1819–1881), the Polonaise in F sharp minor op. 44, which he composed in 1841. She was the wife of Prince Charles de Beauvau-Craon (1793–1864).
Chopin mentions Delfina Potocka several times, for example in a letter from March / April 1847 to the family, in which it says: "You know how much I love her". The painter Eugène Delacroix wrote enthusiastically on March 30, 1849:
“Saw the sorceress Madame Potocka at Chopin's in the evening. I had heard her twice; I have hardly ever met anything more perfect. Especially on the first day, when it was utterly twilight, and her black velvet toilet, her hairstyle, everything but what I couldn't see, made me find her gorgeous in her beauty as she actually is in her grace. "
On April 11, 1849, he stated:
“I think it was on that evening that I saw Madame Potocka at Chopin's. The same wonderful effect of her voice. She sang Notturnos and Chopin's piano music, including that of the Nohant Mill , which she had arranged for an O salutaris . That was wonderful. I told her what I sincerely think: that in music, as without a doubt in all other arts, as soon as the style, the character, in short the seriousness, everything else disappears. I love it much more when she sings that song to the willow than all of these lovely Neapolitan sages. She tried the lake of Lamartine with this so common and sought-after melody by Niedermeyer . This cursed motif tormented me for two days. "
In 1939 a lady by the name of Pauline Czernicka claimed that she had "erotic" letters from Chopin to Delfina Potocka, but refused to allow them to see them. It was only after her death (1949) that researchers succeeded in examining these "letters", which were only copies. In 1969, photocopies of some of the supposed originals turned up, which turned out to be forged; the entire text bundle of the “Potocka letters” is viewed as a forgery, partly compiled from authentic Chopin's letters, partly fictitious.
literature
- Zygmunt Krasinski: Listy do Delfiny Potockiej ( letters to Delfina Potocka ), ed. by A. Zoltowski, 3 volumes, Poznań 1930 to 1938
- Zofia Lissa : Chopin's letters to Delfina Potocka , in: Die Musikforschung , vol. 15 (1962), pp. 341–353
- Tadeusz A. Zieliński: Chopin. His life, his work, his time , Mainz 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fryderyk Chopin, Letters , ed. by Krystyna Kobylańska , Berlin 1983, p. 260
- ^ Eugène Delacroix, A feast for the eye. From the painter's diaries , ed. by Kuno Mittelstädt, Berlin 1979, p. 43
- ↑ Ibid., P. 56
- ^ Alan Walker: Fryderyk Chopin , New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2018, Epilogue Sections V-VII; Adam Zamoyski: Chopin. Prince of the Romantics (German: Chopin. The Poet at the Piano ), London: HarperPress 2010, Appendix B “The Case of the Chopin-Potocka Letters”, cf. Adam Zamoyski, Chopin. The Poet at the Piano , 2010 (digitized version)
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Potocka, Delfina |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Komar, Delfina (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish nobleman and close friend of the composer Frédéric Chopin and the poet Zygmunt Krasiński |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 1807 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kuryłowce Murowane , Podolia |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 2, 1877 |
| Place of death | Paris |