Frédéric Chopin composed his Scherzo no. 1 in B minor, Op. 20, in 1831. At the time, political tensions were high between Poland and the Russian Empire, culminating in the November Uprising. Thomas Albrecht, the dedicatée of the Scherzo, convinced Chopin to stay in Vienna, away from his family, to build his musical career. Probably as a direct result of the war in his homeland, Chopin changed the tone of his compositions, leaving some of the airiness and brightness for a darker mood. A standard performance of this Scherzo takes around 8 minutes.
