For a composer who died at the age of 39 and who wrote almost exclusively for the piano, Frederic Chopin's influence on music and his impact on later composers was enormous.
And for pianists, not having Chopin's music would be unthinkable, Karlyn Bond said.
"That would be like English literature without Shakespeare or the Italian renaissance without Michelangelo. If Chopin hadn't existed, there would be no Rachmaninoff or Scriabin or even Debussy. And Brahms' piano music wouldn't be what it is."
Any reason to celebrate Chopin's music would be acceptable, as far as Bond is concerned. And with 2010 being the 200th anniversary of the Polish composer's birth, Bond, who is a pianist and faculty member at Westminster College, decided to commemorate it with a series of six concerts devoted to an exploration of his works.
The first concert is Monday, with other concerts to follow in February and March. The series concludes at the start of the 2010-11 season with the final three programs.
"(Monday's) concert features four of the six pianists who will be playing in the series," Bond told the Deseret News. Besides Bond, they are Jason Hardink, Vedrana Subotic and Heather Conner. The other two are Kori Bond and Mark Neiwirth; they'll be performing at a joint recital in September.
On the program for Monday are the four ballades. "That will be the second half of the program," Bond said. "On the first half we'll have (University of Utah composer) Steve Roens talk about Chopin's contribution to Western music, interspersed with musical examples from some of his major works."
The reasons pianists love Chopin's music are many, Bond said. "It's satisfying and musically rewarding, and the payoff is big." Breaking it down and analyzing it has its own rewards, too.
"If you study his music from a theory/harmony standpoint, you can hear Bach. Chopin revered Bach and Mozart, and at a deeper level you find the polyphony of Bach at his best."
But the appeal that Chopin's music has isn't just limited to pianists, though. "It's so pleasing to a wide variety of listeners, and it has always been so, because it's accessible and beautiful on all levels," Bond said. "And this beauty conceals the difficulty of performing it and its complexities."
Chopin and Franz Liszt were the two great pianist/composers of the 19th century. Both understood their instrument better than any of their contemporaries. And interestingly their music went in different directions. Liszt's is overwhelmingly flamboyant and virtuosic, frequently for its own sake. Chopin, on the other hand, is conceivably the more sensitive of the two.
"You could argue that there has been no one who better understood the expressive capabilities of the piano than Chopin."
Below is a listing of the three Chopin concerts this season. All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. and take place in Vieve Gore Concert Hall on the Westminster College campus:
Jan. 25: Karlyn Bond, Jason Hardink, Vedrana Subotic, Heather Conner: Introduction and the four ballades.
Feb. 8: Jason Hardink: Program to include a selection of etudes.
March 15: Karlyn Bond: The three sonatas.
If you go...
What: Chopin Extravaganza
Where: Vieve Gore Concert Hall, Westminster College
When: Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $15 general admission, free for students with valid ID (no children under the age of 7 admitted)
Phone: 801-832-2457
Web: westminstercollege.edu/chopin
e-mail: ereichel@desnews.com