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♪♪

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In the Hôtel 
des Invalides,

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Napoleon's veterans 
hospital,

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is the Museum 
of Relief Maps.

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It houses 
military models from a time

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when Europe 
was almost constantly at war.

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I met with their

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director, 
Isabelle Warmoes.

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This model is showing 
the art of siege warfare

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used a little 
before the period of Chopin,

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and you can see the 
encampment of the army

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near the city 
they want to attack.

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There seems to be a wall 
there. Yes.

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To protect the campmen 
from the cannonball of the sea.

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See? They had to build

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this fortification of earth.

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So are they working at night?

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Yes, Because during the night, 
nobody can see you

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and they can put cannons 
to bombard the city.

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Interesting.

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Now to go inside 
the fortification.

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They're making a channel.

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That's very, very bold.

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And you can see that cannonballs

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star 
to destroyed the fortification.

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To permit the soldiers 
to go inside.

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And the city will be down

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in a few moments.

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With foreign powers 
occupying Poland,

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a young Frédéric Chopin 
fled for Paris.

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So this kind of military models

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were made to understand

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the fortification 
and the landscape

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and with this kind of models, 
the King could see

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all the cities 
without moving to the border.

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But to see the vulnerabilities 
of the city or something?

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Exactly. 
- Interesting.

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All the buildings are made of

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wood and pape 
or the trees are made of silk.

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It's cartography, 
but pieces of art, too.

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It's both. 
- Its both, really.

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♪♪

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Like these models, Chopin 
built musical worlds

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in miniature.

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Because he wrote mostly 
for piano,

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I don't know him well.

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So I've 
been reading his letters.

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He said

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“I can express my feelings 
more easily

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if they're 
put into notes of music.”

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But his writing shows 
a gift for language

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and reveals an art 
shaped by his homeland,

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close friendships in Paris, 
and a quest

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for the purest music.

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♪♪

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To help me understand Chopin,

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I called Polish Canadian pianist 
Jan Lisiecki.

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♪♪

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It's so nice

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that they keep this so beautiful 
for everybody to enjoy.

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Absolutely.

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Chopin was born in the Polish 
countryside outside Warsaw.

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I start there with Jan 
and Polish cellist

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Maria Leszczyska.

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It's pretty opulent place 
for the Chopins to live.

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Well, not quite.

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Chopin's father moved here

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as a teacher 
to the aristocratic family

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that lived on the grounds 
and met his mother,

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who was a down on her luck 
aristocrat.

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And they married.

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They lived here in a servants 
house. And in fact,

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this is the very house 
in which Chopin was born.

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We're able to visit it now. 
- Wow.

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You know, 
even as servant's quarters,

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this is really beautiful.

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It's kind of lavish.

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In Chopin's time,

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it probably would have looked 
quite different.

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More like a barn, possibly 
even with a dirt floor.

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It was not nearly as beautiful 
as it is today.

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But in any case, 
I don't think that matters

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very much since he didn't 
stay here very long.

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Yeah, they were here 
only for a few months.

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They moved to Warsaw, actually, 
because his father started

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teaching 
at the private high school.

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And Chopin 
was also educated there,

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so he was pretty well educated.

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So in Warsaw, he was surrounded 
by this high society,

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by the nobility, 
by culture, by art.

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And he would still continue

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to come here as a family 
for holidays.

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So, in elazowa Wola, like he 
had the rural Polish experience,

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I think that really shaped 
who he became.

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The nobility of Warsaw, 
the culture of Warsaw, and

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the Polish culture of 
elazowa Wola.

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Can we go inside?

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Without a doubt. 
- Okay.

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Now, I've never played 
this piece before.

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Neither have I.

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It's not played so much 
but I think, as one can imagine,

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Chopin was quite a child 
prodigy.

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He started composing 
when he was six.

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He continued writing through his 
youth, his teens, and into

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his adult life.

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This piece somehow still has 
some of that youthful energy.

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And I believe he wrote it 
for an exam, didn't he?

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Yeah, I think so. 
During his studies.

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Yeah. He was 
really young at this time.

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Wonder what mark 
he got for this.

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I bet an A 
I would give him an A.

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Let's try it.

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♪♪

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If this sounds like 
a Beethoven trio,

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he was one of Chopin's 
early influences.

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Though Chopin would soon 
find his own path.

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In one letter, he wrote, 
“Beethoven challenges

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the Universe.

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I decided my universe woul 
be the soul and heart of man.”

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♪♪

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Chopin

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landed in Paris at 20 years old 
and was embraced

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by other artists of the 
French romantic movement,

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like the painter Théodore 
Géricault, famous for his horses

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Jan and I went 
to see them

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at the Museum 
of Romantic Life

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with French cellist 
Camille Tomas.

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Yeah.

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This one is really special. 
- Yeah.

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Just the light. 
- Yes.

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And it's such a 
simple subject.

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And it can be so poetic.

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Can have so much meaning.

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Little bit like Chopin's music.

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I think it has this simplicity,

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but complexity and leaves space 
for your own emotions.

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Emotion and expression, 
for sure.

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It's almost human.

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It's beautiful. 
- And listening.

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Aware,

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no? He's open.

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Géricault

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was a good example 
of French romanticism.

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And Géricault

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horses, studied them in 
Versailles, spent a lot of time

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making sure that his depictions 
were true to how they looked.

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And actually did a lot of 
miniatures, just like Chopin.

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And it's actually likely 
that he and Chopin met

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in this very, very room 
we are standing.

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And Chopin would 
have been playing

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some miniatures 
of his own.

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Géricault might have exhibited 
some of these paintings.

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Also, like Chopin, 
he led a similar life.

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He started very early, 
had his first major success

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at the age of 21, a true 
masterpiece, but died young.

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Oh, what a beautiful room.

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Stunning.

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So before becoming 
the Museum of Romantic Life,

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this was Ary 
Scheffer's house.

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And he lived here 
for about 20 years

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and hosted in 
these very rooms

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salons, 
which guested

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the likes of Chopin or 
George Sand.

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What makes it quite 
interesting is Chopin

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was different 
than the rest of them.

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While we may think Chopin's 
music is Romantic

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because of the emotions we feel 
when we hear it, actually

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in definition, 
it is not Romantic.

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Romantic artists

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would focus on creating art 
that was linked with nature.

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With a storm or the sea 
or some certain ideal.

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But Chopin 
like to keep his music pure.

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He likes to write beauty 
for the sake of beauty.

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It's almost like he went 
in the opposite direction

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from the Romantics, 
like it's

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almost the negative image 
of a Romantic composer.

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He wrote little pieces, 
shorter pieces

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for one instrument, versus 
the Romantics

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which were trying to push 
the boundaries.

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Larger orchestras, 
longer symphonies.

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But Chopin came from Poland

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with his own ideas, 
his own way of writing.

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And despite being surrounded 
and embraced

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by these Romanticists, 
he stuck to his own voice.