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Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1

Pianist Martha Argerich: 

You know, very often, I thought that I liked to listen, to hear, the Chopin concerto by young pianists. Yah, I think he was 20 when he did this one. Before, I used to think like that. Now I'm ... in a critical situation about that. Well, to compare it with what, for instance, of his other pieces? OK, the Preludes, the Polonaise-Fantasie? There is already this element of, like, you know, a very beautiful poisoned flower, sometimes. There is already a little bit of it, not as much as there has been in other, yah, but there is...

Indeed, Chopin was 20. He was leaving Poland, a country itself like a beautiful poisoned flower at the time. He would never return.

Charles Dutoit directs the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Jorge Bolet. 

Mark Munger first began listening to public radio as a child in the back of his Mom's VW Vanagon, falling in love with the stories on Morning Edition and Prairie Home Companion and the laughter of Click and Clack on Car Talk. Through KWIT, he was introduced to the great orchestras and jazz artists, the sounds of folk and blues, and the eclectic expressions of humanity. This American Life and Radiolab arrived in his formative college years and made him want nothing more than to be a part of the public radio world.
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