Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 17, 2014

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period. He grew up in Warsaw but left Poland, never to return, aged 20. He settled in Paris, obtaining French citizenship in 1835. From 1837 he maintained an often troubled relationship with the French writer George Sand. A brief and unhappy visit to Majorca with her was one of his most productive periods of composition. All of Chopin's compositions include the piano. Most are for solo piano, although he also wrote two piano concertos, a few chamber pieces, and some songs to Polish lyrics. Many contain elements of Polish folk music and of the classical tradition of J.S. Bach, Mozart and Schubert. His innovations in style, musical form, and harmony, and his association of music with nationalism, were influential throughout and after the late Romantic period. His music, his status as one of music's earliest "superstars", his association with political insurrection, his love life and his early death have made him a leading symbol of his era. His works remain popular, and he has been the subject of numerous films and biographies of varying degrees of historical accuracy. (Full article...)

Recently featured: Tintin in Tibet – Tropical Storm Kiko (2007) – Colorado River