Rem Urasin recital (piano)

Frédéric Chopin is rightly known as the “poet of the piano, and the vast majority of his compositions were written with this instrument in mind. Chopin wrote neither symphonies nor operas or oratorios… But there is little cause to regret this fact as his piano music is an entire universe in its own right.

Chopin composed nocturnes from his youth – beginning in 1829 – right up to his death. By that time, the genre already had a long history. Initially, evening services in the Catholic Church were called nocturnes, and in the 18^th century they began to be known as orchestral suites that were performed at night time – a kind of serenade. This is what Mozart’s orchestral nocturnes are like.
The genre was rediscovered in 1812 by the Irish musician John Field. He succeeded in transforming the nocturne into drawing room music for the piano – it was at this time that “night scenes” began to gain in popularity in theatres, lit by moonlight, sometimes idyllic, sometimes gloomy or “gothic”. In turn, Chopin transformed the nocturne into something akin to “songs without words”. In his nocturnes, starting with his very first opuses, he imitates various vocal genres – arias, romances and even chorales. The performer has to be able to make the piano sing. And as the bel canto style was at its height at the time and Chopin was a fanatical admirer of opera, the melodies of the nocturnes are typically “lit up” with extremely virtuoso ornamental passages.

Written in the summer of 1841, the Fantaisie in F Minor opens with a stern and courageous march which is subsequently replaced by the flow of a spirited improvisation. This work – one of Chopin’s most emotional and passionate – is like the Romantic genius’ manifesto of freedom. At first glance, the form of the Fantaisie seems utterly arbitrary, though it does contain a hint at the structure of a grand operatic scene – a march, recitative and chorus.

Prior to Chopin there were various traditions of the mazurka, which could be either a folk dance or a salon piece. All of these shades and nuances were reflected in his music when in the very early 1830s in Vienna he first turned to mazurkas in search of the Polish national style. But his works stand apart for their complexity, something the genre had not previously known, the refinement of writing and their emotional richness.

An impromptu is something that emerges suddenly without any preparation. Such an item could be a mere trifle in an album for a lady (Impromptu Op. 51 is dedicated to the Countess Esterházy), but Chopin’s impromptus are brilliant revelations by the composer which, thankfully, did not remain as fleeting improvisations but were recorded on paper and carefully perfected. It is useless to ask why the serenely beautiful theme with its Italianate plastique, now a solo, now a duet, is succeeded by a nostalgic and despairing melody in a low tone, because it is just an impromptu.

Chopin’s contemporaries were familiar with poetic ballades and vocal ballades that spoke of fateful events of circumstances preceding them. These ballades were in fashion in the era of Romanticism, but Chopin was the first to call his instrumental works thus. He was very distant from copying the strophic form of vocal ballades, creating instead something concentrated and close in form to the sonata. It is believed that his four ballades for piano were inspired by Adam Mickiewicz’s Świtezianka – the story of a mermaid who ruins a young man. Chopin himself never officially confirmed it, but almost every one of his ballades was composed in the rhythm of a barcarolle, imitating the endless movement of the waves.
Ballade Op. 52 is one of the composer’s late works. It was written in the summer of 1842, which Chopin spent with the artist Eugène Delacroix – the leader of the Romantic school.

If one had to choose from all of Frédéric Chopin’s works for the piano – polonaises, mazurkas, études, ballades, scherzos and waltzes – then the choice would probably fall on the Second Sonata in B Flat Minor as being the most significant. All of the styles of which the composer had a great command, be they for the drawing room, concert hall or dances, are reflected in this work – a monumental sonata cycle, where the stormy romantic fantasy is restrained by the strict classical form.
The Sonata appeared in the summer of 1837, a difficult year for Chopin (difficult for personal reasons). All three of the composer’s piano sonatas are in minor key, although the tonality of the Second – in B Flat Minor – is the gloomiest of the three. The most famous section of the Sonata is the funeral march. Chopin had composed this somewhat earlier and later included it in the sonata. It had operatic origins, in all probability being inspired by the march from Rossini’s La gazza ladra. The finale with its ascetic structure (without any division of melody and accompaniment), unique for romantic music, was probably influenced by the music of Bach.

Anna Bulycheva