As death approached, Chopin lay in his bed surrounded by a group of friends and admirers for some days.Although we know Chopin as being Polish – he was born near Warsaw in 1810 – his father, Nicholas Chopin, was a French émigré.Clearly, he eventually changed his view as they became lovers not long after. When Chopin was first introduced to George Sand at Liszt’s house in the autumn of 1836, he exclaimed ‘what an unpleasant woman’.Thankfully, a wealthy French lady on the island who wasn’t so superstitious bought the piano from them. The fact that Chopin suffered from tuberculosis also meant that they weren’t able to sell the ‘infected’ piano (as the locals thought). When Chopin and Georges Sand returned to France from Majorca, they couldn’t afford the extortionate Spanish taxes for the piano for the trip home.However, it took such a long time to get through the Spanish customs, he had to make do with an inferior local piano – but he still managed to compose some of his most famous pieces on it. Chopin’s favorite piano maker was Pleyel (the French builders) and, when he and Georges Sand and her children went to stay on Majorca for Chopin to recuperate from his tuberculosis, his piano was to go with him.In letters to friends, Chopin’s partner of 10 years, the writer, George Sand (her pen name), he was known affectionately by a number of terms of endearment ‘Chop Chop’, ‘Chopinet’ ‘my little grasshopper’, ‘Monsieur Velvet-fingers’ among them.
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