Jane Stirling Variations

On 24 October, the intimate surroundings of Low Parks Museum in Hamilton became the setting for a unique narrative concert exploring the remarkable story of Jane Stirling — Chopin’s pupil, patron, and posthumous guardian.

The concert combined words and music, history and imagination, with Anna Dębowska at the piano and Marcin Jaroszek as narrator, guiding the audience through the intertwined fates of the Polish composer and his Scottish benefactress. Through images, letters, and anecdotes, the performance recreated Chopin’s 1848 journey to Scotland — a journey that began in the salons of London and ended among the misty landscapes of Dunblane and Stirling.

But at the heart of the evening was the world premiere of Jane Stirling Variations (2025), a new work by Philip Czaplowski, an Australian composer of Polish descent. Commissioned by Anna Dębowska, this contemporary homage transformed Chopin’s Nocturne in F minor, Op. 55 No. 1 into a sequence of nine imaginative variations that both respect and reinterpret the original.

A Contemporary Reflection on Romantic Devotion

In his programme note, Czaplowski writes that when Dębowska approached him to compose a piece honouring Jane Stirling, he was drawn immediately to her connection with Chopin’s Nocturnes, particularly Op. 55 No. 1 — a work whose opening melody seemed ideal as the basis for variation.

“Stylistically,” he explains, “I have chosen not to stray too far from the original, but I hope that I have added just enough contemporary traits to avoid any accusation that the pieces are simply ‘in the style of’ Chopin.”

Indeed, the Jane Stirling Variations expand the delicate lyricism of Chopin’s nocturne into a more exploratory, sometimes unsettling sound world. Czaplowski plays subtly with rhythm, harmony, and phrasing, introducing moments of dissonance and asymmetry that remind the listener that this is not nineteenth-century music, but a modern meditation upon it. Some variations end without a formal cadence, leaving the music suspended in air — “hanging,” as the composer puts it — a gesture that both echoes Chopin’s fragility and evokes the incompleteness of Jane Stirling’s own story.

Variation VIII, inspired by Chopin’s funeral as described in Benita Eisler’s Chopin’s Funeral, offers a moment of quiet reflection rather than elegy — a remembrance without lament. Variation IX then leads directly into the finale, gathering fragments of previous motifs in a luminous coda that briefly recalls the opening theme before fading into silence.

A Portrait in Sound and Memory

Czaplowski’s new composition was framed by Chopin’s own works — Nocturne No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 55, and Mazurka No. 1 — interwoven with Jaroszek’s narrative drawn from letters, historical documents, and the fruits of nearly a decade of research. Together, these elements offered a portrait not only of Chopin but also of Jane Stirling: the woman who financed his final months, who sent his piano to Warsaw, who created the first informal Chopin museum at Keir House, and who, even after his death, preserved his memory with unwavering devotion.

The concert’s closing words evoked Stirling’s quiet presence at the margins of history — “tender, introspective, and touched by the same devotion that once bound Jane Stirling to Frédéric Chopin.”

For a moment, past and present seemed to meet: Chopin’s voice, refracted through Czaplowski’s music and Dębowska’s interpretation, returned to the land where Jane Stirling once walked.

The concert forms part of Anna Dębowska’s ongoing exploration of Chopin’s legacy and his ties to Scotland.

Programme:

F. Chopin