In search of Chopin

Summary: Acclaimed director Phil Grabsky will bring to the cinema around the world the life and music of Fryderyk Chopin - one of the greatest composers of all time. His grave in Paris remains a place of pilgrimage and his music continues to sell out concert halls worldwide - but who exactly was this man who was terrified of public performance, who fled his Polish homeland for Paris never to return, took up with the most notorious transvestite in France, rarely gave public performances and, despite a life of ill-health, wrote some of the deepest and most powerful music ever written? How exactly did a young Polish boy rise to such heady heights? For four years, Phil Grabsky has travelled the globe in his quest to lay bare the life and music of Chopin. By talking to acclaimed musical historians such as Jeremy Siepmann and bringing to the screen performances by such esteemed musicians as Leif Ove Andsnes, Lars Vogt, Daniel Barenboim, Ronald Brautigam and Kevin Kenner he hopes to answer those questions. Renowned stage and screen star Juliet Stevenson provides narration. David Dawson brings life to the letters of Chopin himself.