CHOPIN and Schumann, whose bicentenaries the classical music world celebrates this year, have long been linked as pioneers of Romanticism, in part because of the shared year of their births. Yet they were quite different creative artists who had little personal contact and moved mostly in separate circles.Frédéric Chopin, the son of a French immigrant to Poland and a Polish mother, studied music in Warsaw until, at 20, he set out to further his career elsewhere. He never returned to his native land. The outbreak of the November uprising in Warsaw in 1830 provoked Russia to crack down on Poland. Chopin spent most of the rest of his life in Paris, where he was one of many Polish expatriates. Robert Schumann, born in Zwickau, Germany, lived and worked mostly in German cities, especially Leipzig.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/arts/music/24schumann.html
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