Roots

Donald Macleod explores the music and life of Chopin, zooming in on five key places on his lifetime itinerary - starting today in the composer's hometown, Warsaw, where he spent the formative years - 20 out of a total 39 - of his life.

Chopin's exceptional gifts - as both pianist and composer - were apparent very early. His first published piece is a creditable effort for a seven-year-old, and by the age of sixteen he was writing music that bore the hallmarks of his mature style. Trips to Berlin and Vienna - where two impromptu concerts at the Kärntnerthor Theatre caused a sensation - gave him a taste for foreign exploration, and heightened his sense that Warsaw could not give him all that he needed as an artist. So at the end of 1830, the 20-year-old Chopin set off on a coach for Vienna, little realizing that the failure of the Polish Uprising - which would be brutally crushed by Russia - was soon to make him a permanent exile.