David Dalle
Thursday March 10th, 2022 with David Dalle
New music from Angola, Niger, music from Djibouti, warmth from Dvorak and rage from Chopin.

Stepping away from the horrors in the world today with some new music from Niger and Angola as well as one of the most joyful symphonies from the late 19th century. However, Ukraine is always at the front of my mind. Music reacting against Russian imperialism has a long history. Chopin was a young man of 20 when he left Poland in early November 1830 to settle in Paris. This was only a few weeks before an uprising began in Warsaw against Russian rule, spreading throughout most of Poland. This led to a war which lasted until the following October. Russia, despite much larger forces, was often bogged down and progressed slowly. Chopin was horrified by the war and wanted to return home, but his friends and family begged him to stay away. He spent his first Christmas away from home, despondent and alone in Vienna. This changed his music and he composed one of his most agonized masterpieces that December, his first Scherzo. The great musicologist Alan Walker writes: "The music is not only agitated, it is angry. It pours out of the piano in a torrent of fury made placid only with the arrival of the Trio, where the connection to Poland becomes clear. Chopin paraphrases the well-known Polish Christmas carol 'Lulajze Jezuniu', familiar to every schoolchild in Poland." We hear a recording with the Ukrainian pianist Shura Cherkassky.