Solo Piano Works An Introduction Frédéric Chopin's career is intricately intertwined with the piano. Although he made forays into orchestral work and chamber work, Chopin did not write any major work that did not include the piano. Certainly, his education would have given him the opportunity to write for other instruments, but his natural inclination led him to focus on piano, and he excelled at composing for the instrument. We can separate most of Chopin’s solo piano wo…
Cello Sonata Chopin composed the Sonata in G minor for Piano and Cello in the years 1845 to 1846. According to his letters, Chopin struggled to compose for an instrument other than the piano, but the resulting work shows none of the strain. The Cello Sonata was written for and dedicated to Auguste Franchomme, a French cellist and composer. It was the last work of Chopin’s that was published when he was alive, and the composer and Franchomme premiered the work in early 1848, at Chopin’…
Solo Piano Variations In addition to writing original solo piano works, Chopin also composed a few solo piano pieces based on pre-existent melodies. The advantage of the variation form is that it allows the composer—and the performer as well—to show off innovation and invention in each successive variation. If ever there was a composer who showed virtuosity as both a crafter of musical lines and a skilled performer, it was Chopin. Introduction and Variations on a German Air (“Der Schweitz…
Piano Sonatas Chopin composed three piano sonatas over his career. The first dates from Chopin’s teenage years and is rarely performed in public. It was dedicated to Jo?zef Elsner, who was Chopin’s teacher at the time, and it adheres in some ways to the traditional forms, but it has a couple of notable features. One of these is a third movement in 5/4 time, a very unusual choice. The other two Piano Sonatas date from later years, one written in 1839 and one in 1844. Chopin completed t…
Piano Trio In 1829-1830, Paganini and Hummel visited Warsaw and gave Chopin a taste of a larger world of music and experience. The young composer soon left for a quick trip to Berlin followed by a longer trip to Vienna. It was in Vienna in 1829 that Chopin made his debut on the international stage, to great acclaim. These were busy days, composing and performing, with uncertainty about the next move always lurking. Nevertheless, this was an important time for Chopin, as he was developin…
Solo Songs We do not think of Chopin as a composer of vocal music; he didn’t write a single opera in the course of his career. But he did try his hand at songs for voice and piano. They’re certainly not as well known as his pieces for solo piano, and they are not often performed, but they are endlessly charming and show off a talent for vocal writing that we can otherwise discern in his melodic, lyrical phrases for piano. He composed songs likely beginning in the late 1820s, when he…
Piano 4-hand/two pianos Rondo for Two Pianos Op. 73 This early piece was originally intended as a piano solo. Chopin arranged it for two pianos in 1828, but did not seek to publish the work in either its original version or the two-piano version. It was published in Berlin in 1855 and it is his only surviving piece composed for a two-piano duet. It begins with an introduction, and continues with passages and themes that show contrast between light and dark, playful and mysterious, and f…
Miscellaneous Piano and Orchestra Chopin spent his late teens writing pieces that would help build his reputation as a promising young composer and pianist. To this end, he composed a handful of orchestral works with piano as the featured soloist. His two Piano Concertos date from this period, as do a few single-movement works. Chopin’s career would prove that he wasn’t very much interested in the orchestra, although his works in this genre are actually quite enjoyable and inventive. He …
Piano Concertos Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor When Frédéric Chopin was about nineteen years old, he finished his education at the Warsaw Conservatory and began looking for funding to live and work abroad. On short trips to Berlin and Vienna, Chopin was able to play some of his music for new audiences, and he found that the pieces with Polish forms or characteristics were especially popular. He returned to Warsaw briefly before beginning…
Media One of only two known photographs of Frédéric Chopin, taken by Louis-Auguste Bisson in 1849. Source: Wikipedia NOCTURNES IN B FLAT MINOR, E FLAT MAJOR, B MAJOR Opus 9 Leipzig : Chez Fr. Kistner, [1832] MAZURKAS IN B FLAT MAJOR, E MINOR, A FLAT MAJOR, A MINOR Opus 17 Leipzig : Breitkopf & Härtel, [not before 1841] BALLADE IN G MINOR, Opus 23 Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel (5706) 1836 Autographed partiture by the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin…