“Fryderyk Chopin is a Polish icon,’’ said Andrzej Sulek, director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw. “In Polish culture there is no other figure who is as well known in the world and who represents Polish culture so well.’’
Perhaps nothing better conveys Chopin’s importance - literally - than his heart. It is preserved like a relic in an urn of alcohol in a Warsaw church, encased within a pillar with the biblical inscription: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’’
Just before his death at 39 from what was probably tuberculosis, a coughing and choking Chopin, fearful of being buried alive, asked that his heart be separated from his body and returned to his beloved homeland. His body is buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, where Chopin spent the second half of his life.
Finding it unseemly, Polish authorities have repeatedly rebuffed scientists wanting to run DNA tests on Chopin’s heart to explore a suspicion that he succumbed to cystic fibrosis, a disease not yet discovered in his day.
Sulek said Poland might one day agree but would rather have the world focus on the genius’s life, not his death, during this bicentennial year.
Chopin was born in 1810 at a country estate in Zelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French emigre father. Historical sources suggest two possible dates of birth - Feb. 22, as noted in church records, or March 1, which was mentioned in letters between him and his mother and is considered the more probable date.
Since no one is sure, Poland is marking both. Concerts in Warsaw and Zelazowa Wola will take place over those eight days featuring such world-class musicians as Daniel Barenboim, Evgeny Kissin, Garrick Ohlsson, Martha Argerich, and Krystian Zimerman.
Then, a refurbished museum opens in Warsaw on March 1 displaying Chopin’s personal letters and musical manuscripts along with a multimedia narration of his life.
Celebrations span the globe, from Austria to Cairo’s pyramids and across Asia.
