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 hand, approximating the range of a cello. Others have called it “A Duet between a He and a She.” Or perhaps you prefer “Morbidly Elegaic?” Ballade-like? A Missing Nocturne?

Another school of thought says plainly: It’s an Etude. It’s supposed to help you with perfecting you piano technique. And the technique here is an exquisitely difficult phrasing and balance question – making the left hand carry the melody without being overpowered by the right — when the natural tendency is to go the other way.

Oh, and just to mess you up a little further, the left and right hand are playing quite independent musical lines that need to coincide at key moments.

So, for the final word, let’s transport you back to G.C. Ashton Jonson, author of the 1905 tome A Handbook to Chopin’s Works: (For the Use of Concert-Goers, Pianists, and Pianola Players):

Click on the piano to hear Chopin Project Artistic Director Arthur Greene perform Chopin’s unique Etude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 25, No. 7.

Read the Wikipedia entry here.

Read the Chopinmusic.net entry here.

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Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1

“Magnificent in its breadth, it profound expression, and its tremendous sonority.”   Dr. Frank Cooper‘s summation of this Chopin Nocturne, composed in 1841, just about says it all. But if you want to know more, click here. Or else check out the marvelous collection of Chopin early editions at the University of Chicago library.

Click on the piano to hear pianist Polina Khatsko play this magnificent Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1 in a Chopin Project live performance at the University of Michigan’s Britton Recital Hall.

Want to play it yourself? Get the music here at the Sheet Music Archive.

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Nocturne in B, Op. 62 No. 1

Dmitri Vorobiev of the Chopin Project performs the Nocturne in B, Op. 62, No. 1. To hear it, Click on the piano!

Here’s how it’s described in the 1905 book A Handbook to Chopin’s Works, by George C. Ashton Johnson:

You can read the entire book on Google Docs here.

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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 its mysterious opening, “a song so sad, heartfelt, naive, diversified and caressing.”

Take a look at this fascinating University of Chicago site with digital images of Historic Scores of the Op. 6 Mazurkas, dating from 1832-1850.

Love the Chopin Mazurkas? Read a fuller description of them on the Pianosociety.com website…

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Waltz in A minor, Op. 34, No. 2

Chopin’s third waltz has been called a “piece full of melancholy, gloom and grief, expressed in mournful simplicity.”

Though, according to the Vancouver Chopin Society,

The composer Stephen Heller related that Chopin called this slow (Lento) waltz his favorite. When Heller told the Pole that he, too, loved it best, Chopin immediately invited him for lunch at a fashionable cafe. Frederick Niecks wrote of this piece, “The composer evidently found pleasure in giving way to this delicious languor, in indulging in these melancholy thoughts full of sweetest, tenderest loving and longing.”

Polina Khatsko of the Chopin Project performs the Waltz in A minor, Op. 34, No. 2. To hear it, Click on the piano!

For information on obtaining the sheet music to the Waltz from the Musicroom,

Click on the cover page!

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Impromptu in A-flat, Op. 29 No. 1

Today the Chopin Project spotlight falls on Russian-born Michigan pianist Olga Kleiankina, performing the First Impromptu (in A-flat, Op. 29, No. 1) by Chopin. By its very title “Impromptu” is supposed to mean just that — just a perky, playful little ditty that Fryderyk would dash off at the keyboard without a lot of forethought or consideration. The reality is, of course, anything but that! Chopin’s Impromptus are eternally popular, and devilishly difficult to pull off. Olga Kleiankina adds, “I felt a lot of pressure preparing for these concerts and was more than a little anxious. But the audiences were very warm, and it turned out to be such a pleasure. Even though I didn’t happen to play any major works, (many of them were almost unknown, in fact!), I came to love all my pieces, and I felt the audience did too. Even though they were miniatures, I felt that each one was perfectly organized from the very inside – in a way, a microcosmos….part of the transcendental world of Chopin’s imagination.”

CLICK ON THE PIANO to hear to Olga Kleiankina play Chopin’s Impromptu in A-flat, Op. 29, No. 1. before an appreciative Ann Arbor audience.

Feeling ambitious? Download the sheet music here from pianosociety.com.

And read more about the Impromptus on Chopinmusic.net

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Variations in A Major, “Souvenir de Paganini” KK 1203

This rare bit of Chopiniana was supposedly written after violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini came through Warsaw in the summer of 1829, a concert we know that Chopin attended. A month later he graduated from the Higher School of Music in Warsaw, where a teacher wrote, “Chopin, Fryderyk: third-year student, amazing capabilities, musical genius.”

CLICK ON THE PIANO to hear Dmitri Vorobiev perform Chopin’s Variations in A Major, “Souvenir de Paganini” KK 1203

Find the sheet music at Pianopedia

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Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2

Chopin once wrote, “When one does a thing, it appears good, otherwise one would not write it. Only later comes reflection, and one discards or accepts the thing. Time is the best censor, and patience a most excellent teacher.”Upon further reflection, Chopin must have realized that this Waltz was an all-time keeper, a favorite of piano virtuosos and amateurs alike since Chopin’s own time. It was a notable favorite of Artur Rubinstein. In fact, the Chopin.Net site has a nice anecdote about Rubinstein:

When people asked him how he could continue to play the same waltz for over 75 years, he replied, “Because it’s not the same, and I don’t play it the same way.”

From the Chopin Project concerts, CLICK ON THE PIANO to listen to Svetlana Smolina perform Chopin’s Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2.

Speaking of virtuosos, this is also one of the pieces that Vladimir Horowitz performed at the White House during a 50th anniversary Command Performance for President & Mrs. Carter in 1978. You can watch it on YouTube, with some nice close-ups of Horowitz’s hands.

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Étude in A minor, Op. 10, No. 2

The world of music had never before known any études as original, as musical, or as difficult. — Frank Cooper

This is one of the best-known (and arguably, the most difficult!) of the set of twelve études Chopin dedicated to Franz Liszt. The Études were published in a single volume in 1833, when Chopin was 23, although four of them are supposed to have been completed as early as 1829.

“Étude” literally means “study” or “exercise,” which is especially apparent in this particular work, which is designed to strengthen the “weaker” (that is, the third, fourth, and fifth) fingers of the right hand. But Chopin doesn’t stop there — the thumb and index fingers have to play the accompanying chords to the dizzying “melody” going up and down the keyboard on those “weak” fingers.

Just to underscore the technical nature of this étude, Chopin even takes a page from the J.S. Bach playbook and indicates the fingering – note by note — of the almost 800 notes in this piece!

Hear Chopin Project pianist Xiaofeng Wu perform Chopin’s Étude in A minor, Op. 10, No. 2

Some other links to Chopin Études, courtesy of Wikipedia:

• The Ultimate Chopin Etudes Discography from Eternal Chopin Etudes Space
• Study Guide, Recordings and Sheet Music from Chopin Music
• Sheet music available in .pdf or LilyPond format, from Mutopia.

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Three Ecossaises, Op. 72

 

Arthur Greene:

“In Warsaw, when Chopin was growing up, the social scene was extremely active, and anyone who wasn’t sick or crippled would go to dance parties almost every night. And the star of these events was usually Chopin, because he was both a great dancer himself – and he played for all of the other dancers. He would usually improvise at one of these events….sitting at the piano and playing for hours, coming up with mazurkas, waltzes, and ecossaises. (“eh-koh-SAY”) Nobody dances ecossaises anymore, but these are the types of dances that Chopin would have improvised at a party, and if he really liked it, he’d then go home and write it down.”

Hear Arthur Greene perform Chopin’s Three Ecossaises, Op. 72 (1826)

Download the sheet music from pianopublicdomain.com

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