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Letter to unidentified recipient [Auguste Franchomme?] April 1, 1849

Opochinsky Collection
Gilmore Music Library

   In this short letter, written just a few months before his death on October 17, 1849, Chopin complains about his poor health. The recipient is not identified, but is thought to be his cellist friend Auguste Franchomme (1808–1884). Chopin rarely composed for anything other than solo piano, but he wrote a cello sonata for Franchomme in 1847.
This letter was part of the collection of Maurice Sand, the son of Chopin’s partner George Sand. It was later acquired by David Opochinsky, and after his death, Opochinsky’s family donated it to Yale along with the rest of his extraordinary collection. You can read more about the Opochinsky Collection in the caption to the Polonaise manuscript, elsewhere in this exhibit.