A Curious Case

 The first day of 'Meteorological Spring' at last – and it's St David's Day, and the birthday of Frederic Chopin (born on this day in 1810). Wouldn't it be good it Chopin had, like Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Schubert and many another, written a piece of Spring-themed music? Alas, he didn't – but there is still the curious case of 'Chopin's Spring Waltz', a piece which, despite not being by Chopin, not sounding like Chopin, and not even being (for the most part) in waltz time, has had a huge internet success, and can still be found under that false flag. It first attracted attention – and 34 million views – when it turned up as an erroneously titled YouTube video. After that was taken down, it kept turning up again and again, in one iteration attracting over 160 million views. The piece known as 'Chopin's Spring Waltz' is actually 'Mariage d'Amour', written by Paul de Senneville in 1978, and popularised by Richard Clayderman, whose repertoire it fits perfectly. Here is the piece (arranged by George Davidson), on which I shall pass no further comment...

I remember buying my first Chopin record, in the local W.H. Smith's, when they still sold such things. The girl behind the counter had some difficulty with the word 'Chopin', which I had to write down on paper for her, but eventually I came out clutching a Music for Pleasure EP of the great Fantaisie-Impromptu, played, I think, by Benno Moiseiwitsch. Here he is (in another recording) showing how it's done...