Etude in C-sharp minor, Op. 25 No. 7 – Beyond Category

Smack-dab in the middle of Chopin’s Op. 25 Etudes lies this unique and memorable piece that is unlike any other Chopin creation. And one that has generated a considerable amount of ink over the decades.
Sometimes it’s called the “‘cello Etude,” due to the fact that the prominent melody is in the left [...]

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Waltz in A-flat, Op. 42: The “Most Perfect Waltz”??

Chopinmusic calls it “the most ambitious and substantial of all Chopin’s waltzes.”
The Vancouver Chopin Society goes even further, quoting David Dubal in suggesting that this “Grand Valse” is the essence of Chopin:
A case may be made for the Op. 42 as Chopin’s most perfect valse. After the first measures of trill, a call to the [...]

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Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 6, No. 2

As Chopin Project Artistic Director Arthur Greene heads off to Novi Sad, Serbia, to judge and perform in the Isidor Bajic Memorial Competition, he leaves us a taste of his masterful Chopin interpretation with this performance of the Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 6, No. 2.

Click on the Piano to hear the Mazurka with [...]

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Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9, No. 2 (w/additional cadenzas)

Arthur Greene:
“Today’s entry takes us into far more familiar Chopin territory. The Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2 comes from around 1830, -after Chopin had left Warsaw forever. But the version I’m playing here has a bit of a twist. There are some scores of Chopin’s [...]

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Rondo in C minor, Op. 1 – Chopin’s First Published Piece

 

Arthur Greene:
By the time he was 15, Chopin had developed has piano technique considerably, and he was writing pieces that were firmly in the virtuoso tradition of the early Romantic period. Now, the general aesthetic at the time was not particularly deep or profound — it was more about varied and pretty effects. [...]

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Barcarolle in F-sharp minor, Op. 60

 
This is one of the last pieces that Chopin played in public. The excellent notes from the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s website sets the stage:
When in 1846 Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) completed the Barcarolle, the last work of its relatively large size to come from his pen, [...]

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Chopin’s First Piece

“The very first piece on the program is a piece that Chopin wrote when he was seven years old. It’s very typical of the music that was being written at that time in Warsaw…a little Polonaise…with even a little virtuosic flourish in it. But Chopin was too young to write the notes down [...]

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The Chopin Project – the Back Story

 
The Chopin Project began as an ambitious live-concert-and-symposium series at the University of Michigan’s acclaimed School of Music, Theatre & Dance devoted to exploring the entirety of Fryderyk Chopin’s works for solo piano: Through a series of nine concerts at Britton Recital Hall, students from the piano studio of renowned teacher and performer Arthur Greene presented [...]

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