This volume contains the most recent Chopin research of twelve leading scholars. Three main topics are addressed: reception history, aesthetics and criticism, and performance studies. The essays explore Chopin as classical composer, modernist, and androgyne.

Preface; 1. Chopin reception: theory, history, analysis Jim Samson; 2. Chopin as 'salon composer' in nineteenth-century German criticism Andreas Ballstaedt; 3. Chopin as modernist in nineteenth-century Russia Anne Swartz; 4. Small fairy voices: sex, history and meaning in Chopin Jeffrey Kallberg; 5. Chopin's Ballade Op. 23 and the revolution of the intellectuals Karol Berger; 6. The Polonaise-Fantasy and issues of musical narrative Anthony Newcomb; 7. Placing Chopin: reflections on a compositional aesthetic Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger; 8. Ambiguity and reinterpretation in Chopin Edward T. Cone; 9. The Prelude in E minor Op. 28 No. 4: autograph sources and interpretation Carl Schachter; 10. Performing the F# minor Prelude Op. 28 No. 8 L. Henry Shaffer; 11. Chopin's tempo rubato in context David Rowland; 12. Authentic Chopin: history, analysis and intuition in performance John Rink; Appendix: encounters with Chopin: Fanny Erskine's Paris diary, 1847–8 Jeremy Barlow; Index.