Chopin – Various compositions [B]

51.99zł

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Cat. No. CDB040
Music disc: SACD

Performer:
Yuko Kawai – piano

Disc content:

Marche Funebre in C minor WN 9 – 4’38”

Ecossaises WN 13

No.1 in G major – 0’32”
No.2 in D flat major – 0’34”
No.3 in D major – 0’54”

[Variants] /Souvenir de Paganini/ WN16 – 3’32”
Nocturne in E minor WN 23 – 4’08”
Contredanse WN 27 – 1’28”
[Allegretto] WN 36 – 0’49”
[Lento con gran espressione] / Nocturne in C sharp minor / WN 37 Earlier version – 3’40”
Lento con gran espressione in C# minor WN 37 Later version – 3’41”
Cantabile in B major WN 43 – 0’58”
Presto con leggierezza / Prelude in A flat major / WN 44 – 0’45”
Impromptu in C sharp minor / Fantaisie-Impromptu / WN 46 – 4’59”
Spring WN 52a – 1’45”
Sostenuto / Waltz in E flat major / WN 53 – 1’29”
Moderato WN 56 – 1’51”
Galop Marquis WN 59 – 0’54”
Nocturne in C minor WN 62 – 2’52”

Total time – 40’12”

Out of stock

SKU: CDB040E Categories: All discs, National Edition serie B, Super Audio

Description

Various Compositions – Series B

This CD features quite extraordinary pieces. They were not published in Chopin’s lifetime and most of them have remained virtually unknown. They had their first performances for this recording in the reconstructed version made by the editors of the National Edition of Chopin’s Works. Written for a wide range of occasions, the compositions are of various musical merit, from a musical joke (Galop Marquis) to a highly personal utterance (Lento con gran espressione), from fleeting thoughts written down in people’s diaries (Cantabile, Moderato, Sostenuto) to pieces which could have been included among those published in the composer’s lifetime (Nocturne in E minor, Impromptu in C sharp minor), from youthful attempts which were a response to outside inspiration (Funeral March in C minor, Variants) or improvisations at dancing parties (Ecossaises) to the poignant testimony to the suffering endured in the last months of life (Nocturne in C minor).

The Funeral March in C minor (WN-National Edition 9, in other editions Op. posth. 72 No. 2) dates from the beginning of 1826. It was written most probably under the impression of the ceremonial funeral of the prominent statesmen, writer and priest Stanisław Staszic (1755-1826). Chopin was among those attending the funeral (he mentions it in a letter to Jan Białobłocki), which turned into a patriotic manifestation. The composition exhibits some similarities to the funeral march from Beethoven’s Sonata in A flat major (a rhythmically repeated minor chord in the opening phrase), a proof of Chopin having been versed in the early sonatas of Beethoven, who died the following year.

Of the five stylized Scottish dances, Ecossaises, which Chopin penned in G, D flat, D, B flat and E flat, only the first three have survived in their entirety. All of the Ecossaises were written most probably as improvised dance music. The Ecossaises WN – National Edition 13 No. 1 in G major, No. 2 in D flat major and No. 3 in D major were composed around 1827. As social dances, they were functional pieces, adding to the repertoire for the carnival balls in Warsaw prior to the November Uprising. They have the character of the then popular salon skipping dance in duple metre. Chopin marked them brillant. They all combine graceful simplicity (reminiscent of Schubert’s dances) with pianistic elegance and humour, typical of Chopin’s early period.

[Variants] in A major (WN-National Edition 16) is a set of variations published in 1881 by Jan Kleczyński under the title Souvenir de Paganini. Chopin composed the work after hearing a series of concerts given by Niccolo Paganini and Karol Lipiński between the end of May and 14 July 1829 to grace the coronation of Tsar Nicolas I as the King of Poland. During the last concert of the series, Paganini enthralled the audience, including Chopin, with the performance of his Fantasy Op. 10 entitled Le Carnaval de Venise. The Neapolitan melody Oh, mamma, mamma cara, quoted in the piece, was used by Chopin as the theme of the Variants. The work has a very peculiar structure, with four variations of the 16-bar theme coming one after the other in a continuous manner, without any distinct division, on the basis of the one-sided formula in which the melody is used as a basso ostinato. The persistent repetition of a single rhythmic pattern realising two harmonic functions seems to be an expression of Chopin’s peculiar sense of humour.

The Nocturne in E minor (WN-National Edition 23) is among Chopin’s most beautiful and evocative nocturnes. Musicologists differ as to the date of its composition. The editors of the National Edition believe the work was composed between 1828 and 1830. On the other hand, the style of the piece, its expressive features and particularly its pain-filled and elegiac character point to a later period in Chopin’s career. Simple and frugal in the use of compositional devices, the work’s texture is typical of a Chopin’s nocturne. Against a background of an arpeggio-like sequence of chords in the bass line there develops a highly expressive soprano line, rising and falling, rhythmically diversified and ornamented with a plethora of fiorituras, slowing down and accelerating in tempo rubato fashion.

Contredanse in G flat major (WN-National Edition 27) is a short, charming stylisation of a popular salon dance with the typical da capo structure including a trio. Until recently, the authenticity of the piece was questioned. The fact that its extant manuscript (not the composer’s autograph) comes from the collection of Tytus Wojciechowski, Chopin’s bosom friend from the time of his youth, however, implies that it came from Chopin’s hand. The type of melodic and harmonic devices employed in the work, similar to those in other Chopin’s pieces (Nocturne in F sharp major Op. 15 No. 2, Scherzo in B minor Op. 20, Fantasy in F minor Op. 49), leaves no doubt as to its authorship.

[Allegretto] in F sharp major (WN-National Edition 36) is an entry in an album of the pianist Leopoldyna Blahetka, whom Chopin met in Vienna in 1829. It was reconstructed by Jan Ekier. The work was initially known as the Mazurka in F sharp major and Chopin’s authorship was generally questioned, particularly since it was established that in some editions the work was ascribed to the German composer Charles Mayer. The prominent ethnographer Oskar Kolberg had no doubt that the Allegretto came from Chopin’s hand.

Lento con gran espressione in C sharp minor (WN-National Edition 37) stands out in Chopin’s entire oeuvre for its uniqueness. Sometimes called a nocturne, it only partly deserves this label as it is only the outer sections of this 65-bar miniature that fit the gen- re’s character. Its central section is a somewhat jocular blend of reminiscences of the Concerto in F minor (all its movements) and the song Życzenie (The Wish). Written in Vienna in 1830, the work has survived in two versions (both of which are jotted down in Blahetka’s album), which differ in their treatment of these quotations. In the earlier version, the original metre of 3/4 is retained, which, combined with the accompaniment in the metre of 4/4, gives an example of polymetry, unmet with anywhere else in Chopin’s output. Such an amazing device seems to have its psychological justification. The first version of the piece is a record of the composer’s nostalgia and sorrow following his departure from Poland and the parting with his family and friends (outer sections) and of the distinct reminiscences of the joyful moments spent among his dearest ones (polymetrically arranged quotations in the central section). The work’s later version was dedicated to the composer’s older sister, Ludwika, who, after some years, inscribed the piece into an album of Maria Wodzińska, Chopin’s sweetheart. In this version, Chopin adjusted the rhythm of the quotations to an even metre which holds true for the greater part of the composition. The renunciation of polymetry was dictated by practical reasons. It would have been probably too difficult to be realised by an amateur pianist, as Ludwika was. It could also be dictated by the need to communicate a different state of the composer’s spirit, this time in a story about sorrow brightened up by some cheerful recollections of the past.