What Killed Chopin?

"Hats off gentlemen, a genius!" - Robert Schumann

"A really perfect virtuoso" - Felix Mendelssohn

"A sickroom talent" - John Field

"He shines lonely, peerless in the firmament of art" - Franz Liszt

   ~~ great 19^th century pianists talking about Frederic Chopin

 Though buried in Paris, Chopin’s heart is preserved in cognac at the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw, Poland.    He supposedly died of tuberculosis, but his symptoms also fit a number of other modern diseases.  Living descendants of Chopin’s family will not allow that heart preserved in cognac to be tested with modern scientific techniques.

So we may never attain confirmation of how the great pianist and composer died.

The current issue of BBC News Magazine has an article by Marek Purszewicz on the mystery of Chopin’s death.  The link is here:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29915863