Frederic Chopin

The French term nocturne translates as of the night and was first applied to delicate and romantic music for a solo piano by the Irish composer John Field.

But it was Chopin who popularized the nocturne with the 21 he wrote between 1827 and 1848.

And to get the music started today, here is the Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires playing his Second Nocturne, written in 1832 when Chopin was 22.

It's about four minutes long.

PIANO PLAYS Thank you.

so so you . . . . .

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That was Maria João Pires playing Frédéric Chopin's Second Nocturne.

Let me give you some very quick biographical brushstrokes.

Chopin was born in 1810 in a village 30 miles west of Warsaw and was quickly recognised as a child prodigy, giving public concerts from the age of seven and starting to compose at about the same time.

He later studied at the Warsaw Conservatory and then, at the age of 20, moved to Paris after some months in Vienna.

This coincided with a failed uprising back in Poland, after which Russia removed what limited self-government Poland had enjoyed.

For Chopin to return, he would have had to apply for travel documentation that recognized the Russian Tsar as the head of the Polish state, something Chopin refused to do and he would spend the rest of his life primarily in France, never returning to his homeland.

In Paris, he would befriend Liszt.

and Schumann, and support himself by publishing music and giving piano lessons.

He rarely appeared in public, preferring to play in the salons of aristocrats.

His most significant relationship was with Amantine Aurore Dupin, better known to the world as the writer and activist George Sand, an utterly fascinating figure who was, in terms of her views about the place of women in society at least, a century ahead of her time.

When they met in 1836, Chopin was already showing signs of the tuberculosis that would have an increasing impact on the rest of his life and would lead to his death at the age of 38 in 1849.