This is the soundtrack of Tony Palmer's classic film The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka - The Mystery of Chopin, featuring Paul Rhys, Penelope Wilton, John Shrapnel, Corin Redgrave, Terence Rigby and Patricia Quinn.
In 1945 the new Polish government asked for the heart of Chopin, previously buried in Paris. A woman called Paulina Czernika approached the Polish government claiming to have some love letters from the composer to her great-grandmother, the Countess Delfina Potocka. Eventually alarmed, the Ministry began a witch-hunt against Madame Czernika - Delfina Potocka was the only woman to whom Chopin had dedicated any music - these letters were said to be pornographic, anti-Semitic and thoroughly damaging to the image of the composer as a Polish hero.
Czernika ‘committed suicide' on 17th October 1949, 100 years to the day after the death of Chopin - or was she murdered, and if so, why? Were the letters, in fact, forgeries? And what was the truth about Delfina Potocka?
