Frédérich Chopin: Contredanse in G-flat Major, B. 17 - Evgeny Starodubtsev
An OnClassical production,
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The 4 Scherzi were composed within a span of less than a decade, from 1835 to 1843. They are recognized as some of the most important works by Chopin, and understandably so when we evaluate their contribution to pianism and to the genre (Chopin is the inventor of the large-scale scherzo for piano). From the tragic introduction and harmonic clashes that surround a lullaby in the Scherzo in B Minor, Op. 20 to the celebrated hair-raising questions that open the Second Scherzo, Op. 31, to the fantastical effects of the Scherzo in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39, to the fairylike world depicted in the Scherzo in E Major, Op. 54, Chopin traces not only his path to maturity, but also revolutionary means in the way he treated the piano and its infinite potential.
On his deathbed, Chopin asked (twice) to have all his unpublished works destroyed – a wish that was not honored. Had it been the case, we would have been deprived of more than forty works, among