A Narrative Concert Honouring Chopin’s Scottish Muse
On 24 October, the Low Parks Museum in Hamilton hosted a unique narrative concert devoted to Jane Stirling — the Scottish pupil, patron, and posthumous guardian of Frédéric Chopin’s legacy.
Pianist Anna Dębowska and narrator Marcin Jaroszek guided the audience through the intertwined lives of Stirling and Chopin, retracing his 1848 journey to Scotland through music, letters, and storytelling.
At the heart of the evening was the world premiere of Jane Stirling Variations (2025) by Philip Czaplowski, an Australian composer of Polish descent. Commissioned by Dębowska, the work takes Chopin’s Nocturne in F minor, Op. 55 No. 1—dedicated to Jane Stirling—as the basis for a contemporary reflection on Romantic devotion.
“I wanted to stay close to Chopin’s language,” Czaplowski explains, “but also introduce modern rhythmic and harmonic elements that remind us this is not nineteenth-century music.” The variations incorporate moments of dissonance, asymmetry, and suspended endings that echo both Chopin’s fragility and Stirling’s enduring reverence.
Blending Chopin’s own works with Czaplowski’s new composition, the performance offered a moving portrait of artistic friendship — of a composer and the woman who preserved his memory with unwavering care.
Tender, introspective, and luminous, the Jane Stirling Variations left the audience with the sense that Chopin’s spirit had returned, briefly, to Scotland.
Programme:
F. Chopin
Nocturne No 1 in F minor, Op. 55
Etude No 12 in C minor, Op. 10
Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. posth.
Prelude No 15 in D flat major, Op. 28
Nocturne No 2 in E flat major, Op. 55
Mazurka No 3 in C major, Op. 67
Prelude No 20 in C minor, Op. 28
P. Czapłowski
Jane Stirling Variations (World Premiere)
