(10 Dec 2021) LEAD IN:
The last piano Frederic Chopin ever played is being restored.
The composer's instrument is being given back its original mid-19th century characteristics.

STORY-LINE:
An expert piano restorer uses all his skills to bring this historic instrument back to life.
This piano was the very last one used by Frederic Chopin as he composed in Paris.
It is now housed at the The Frederic Chopin Institute in Warsaw.
"This is a very precious instrument. This is Frederic Chopin's last piano, manufactured by the famous piano manufacturer in Paris and Chopin's friend, Camille Pleyel. It was at Chopin's disposition in 1848-1849," says Aleksander Laskowski, spokesman for The Frederic Chopin Institute.
"And then, after his death, the instrument was purchased by his student, pupil and friend Jane Stirling, who gave it to Chopin's sister Ludwika. It was brought to Warsaw."
Chopin was already seriously ailing when he received the piano.
He died in October 1849.
Since then, his piano has survived numerous journeys and two world wars.
But it was an earlier restoration in the 1950s which was its biggest problem.
"A piano ages as any musical instrument, as opposed to violin which gets better with age, with pianos the wood just loses its flexibility and you need to renovate the instrument," explains Laskowski.
"This piano was renovated in the 1950s and a wrong type of strings was put onto it."
Restorer Paul McNulty is tasked with filling in cracks in the piano's soundboard and fitting the correct wire strings, similar to those it would originally have had.
He is certain this will bring the instrument back to its former glory.
"Modern strings were put on and it destroyed the tone. And somebody said at that time, well the whole instrument was destroyed and then nobody looked at it. Like a corpse, very important corpse, at the heart of this museum's collection," he says.
"But in fact it is the best preserved Pleyel (piano brand) from this period."
McNulty will spend several days restoring the piano.
Once he's finished, the Frederic Chopin Institute does not intend for it to sit silent.
"We hope it will sing for us again. So an opportunity to hear the sound of Chopin's piano as he heard it when he composed is quite likely," says Laskowski.
Frederic Chopin was born in Warsaw in 1810 and died in Paris at the age of 39.

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