Jane Stirling

Achille Devéria : Jane Stirling

Jane Wilhelmina Stirling (born July 15, 1804 in Perthshire ; † February 6, 1859 ibid) was a student of Frédéric Chopin from the Scottish nobility . Her wealth, which came from an inheritance, enabled her, especially in the last phase of Chopin's life, to provide material for her poor teacher. She looked after his estate in collaboration with Chopin's family and friends. With their help, Chopin was able to leave Paris after the February Revolution of 1848. Until his return to Paris in late 1848, she organized his musical and social activities in England and Scotland. Her advocacy for Chopin was characterized by deep affection and a natural willingness to help others.

Shortly after Chopin's death in Paris, Jane Stirling was sometimes seen as “his widow”. However, the rumor of an engagement between Jane and Chopin is unfounded. She also advocated the publication of Chopin's posthumous works, despite his ban. Major parts of today's Warsaw Chopin Collection come from their possessions, which they bequeathed to the Chopin family.

Life

Stirling came from the Scottish nobility. She was the youngest of thirteen children. She lost her mother when she was 12 and her father when she was 16. The inheritance made her a rich young woman. She was placed under the tutelage of her widowed sister Katherine Erskine , who was 29 years old when her father died. Jane Stirling was slim and beautiful. Many admirers asked for her hand; she is said to have rejected around 30 applicants.

From 1826 Jane and her sister shared their social life between Scotland and Paris. Jane Stirling dealt not only with music and the arts, but also with prison reform , homeopathy and the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism in Scotland.

Student and sponsor

When Jane Stirling and Chopin met is not known with certainty. Possible dates are 1843 and 1844. That she was a talented pianist can be deduced from Chopin's comment to her: “ Vous jouerez un jour très, très bien ” (“One day you will play very, very well”). In 1849, Chopin's assistant Vera Rubio-Kologrivoff took over the lessons. In 1844 Chopin dedicated the two Nocturnes Op. 55. When she confessed her desire to learn to play the cello , Chopin introduced her to his friend, the cellist Auguste Franchomme .

The copies of his works used in lessons with Chopin, with the composer's handwritten entries, were later used by the French musicologist and Chopin biographer Édouard Ganche to create the Oxford edition of Chopin's works. She arranged his concert in the concert hall of the Pleyel company on February 16, 1848. This was his last concert in Paris. There had been plans for another concert in March, but the February Revolution of 1848 broke out in Paris . Many people fled the city; Chopin was suddenly stripped of his livelihood as a piano teacher and pianist.

Concert tour in Britain

Jane and her sister suggested a concert tour to England for Chopin . He was sick and didn't want to travel; but because he needed the money such a trip would bring, he finally agreed. They left Paris on April 20, 1848. Through Jane Stirling, Chopin became acquainted with the higher society in England and Scotland. On a private occasion on May 15, he played a concert that was attended by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert . Contrary to what is sometimes reported, however, he was never invited to Buckingham Palace . As the London season ended in August, Chopin accepted an invitation from Jane Stirling to visit her native Scotland. They lived near Edinburgh in Calder House , the castle of Lord Torphichen , a brother-in-law of the sisters. Chopin had to go through a grueling program of visits to Jane Stirling's wealthy relatives, which contributed to the deterioration in his health. Chopin returned to Paris at the end of 1848. Jane Stirling paid for the trip.

Hereditary trustee

T. Kwiatkowski: Chopin on his death bed

In the last weeks of Chopin's life, Jane Stirling commissioned Polish artist Teofil Kwiatkowski to create an oil painting by Chopin, which also included Chopin's sister Ludwika Chopin-Jedrzejewicz , Marcelina Czartoryska and Grzymała.

In September 1849, a month before his death, Chopin moved into an apartment at Place Vendôme No. 12 in the 1st arrondissement (Paris) . The two-story apartment with seven rooms had previously housed the Russian embassy. Chopin couldn't afford it; but Jane Stirling rented them for him.

On December 11, 1849, she bought the grand piano that Camille Pleyel had given Chopin. She paid all of his funeral expenses, all of the travel expenses of Chopin's sister Ludwika and her daughter Magdalena, and paid for the cost of bringing his piano to Warsaw. She bought all of Chopin's remaining furniture and valuables, including his death masks, which Auguste Clésinger had made. She had some of the furniture brought to Calder House near Edinburgh. They were taken to a special room that then became known as the Chopin Museum. She also collected various manuscripts, sketches, letters, and other papers from his handwriting, including handwritten comments, variants, and dedications. She had considerable correspondence with Ludwika Jędrzejewicz about the posthumous publication of some of his previously unpublished works. 25 of these letters as well as several souvenirs from Jane Stirling's Chopin collection, which she later bequeathed to Chopin's family, are now in the Muzeum Fryderyka Chopina in Warsaw.

Chopin had told Jane Stirling that she was the only person who knew his real birthday. She wrote it down and placed it in a box that was buried with him in the Père Lachaise cemetery. (Note: Chopin's mother outlived her son by years.) On the first anniversary of his death, she scattered some Polish soil that she had received from Ludwika over Chopin's grave.

After Chopin's death, Jane continued to study piano with Thomas Dyke Acland Tellefsen , a student of Chopin.

Jane Stirling died of an ovarian cyst at the age of 54 . On February 11, 1859, she was buried in Dunblane Cathedral . In her will she bequeathed the pieces from her museum to Chopin's mother, who outlived her son by 12 years. Much of it was destroyed in the January uprising in 1863 . In the Ostrogski Palace , the seat of the Frédéric Chopin Museum in Warsaw , a lock of Chopin's hair that Jane Stirling kept is on display.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Edouard Ganche: Dans le souvenir de Frédéric Chopin . 6th edition. Mercure de France. Paris 1925. Quoted in: Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger: Chopin vu par ses élèves . Nouvelle édition mise à jour. Librairie Arthème Fayard. Paris 2006, ISBN 978-2-213-62916-2 , page 233.
2. ^ The Oxford original edition of Frédéric Chopin (Oxford University Press, London 1928–1932).
3. ^ ^{A b c} The Chopin Society UK
4. ^ Living Scotsman
5. ↑ In attendance are (lr) Aleksander Jełowicki, Chopin's sister Ludwika Jędrzejewicz, Marcelina Czartoryska , Wojciech Grzymała and Kwiatkowski himself
6. ↑ see the section on the pianos of Chopin's time in the article Frédéric Chopin .
7. ↑ David CF Wright, Jane Stirling (PDF; 493 kB)

literature

• Audrey Evelyn Bone: Jane Wilhelmina Stirling 1804-1859. The first study of the life of Chopin's pupil and friend . 1960. New edition 1972, ISBN 978-0-9502540-0-5 . Open Library
• Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger: Chopin vu par ses élèves . Nouvelle édition mise à jour. Librairie Arthème Fayard. Paris 2006, ISBN 978-2-213-62916-2 .