I know that no one, ever, could possibly fathom the mind of Chopin. Most of us have heard his compositions played many times. Some of us have/are learning one or two ourselves. A lot of us take pride in being able to not only recognize a piece by Chopin but also name it (I still can't do this, some but not all.) His life has been dissected hundreds of times in books and articles. His music analyzed "ad nauseam." But I believe I have hit upon a topic that just might be unusual.

I had to take a long drive in my car yesterday, and for company, I brought along two CD's that contained all of Chopin's nocturnes. I purposely chose the nocturnes because I am familiar with only a handful of them.

I expected the dream-like quality that so many have used to describe this genre. Wow...was I surprised! Almost everyone of them had, somewhere within that dreaminess, a virtual nightmare! I mean real rage and anger. Sometimes those hostile chords jumped out at me from no where, and I practically hit the roof of the car. And the first question that came to my mind was what was he thinking at the time he wrote these beauties, pearl-like in their exquisiteness but only to be thrust into the mouth of a shark. Gosh, that last sentence is a bit much, I admit.

If you would like to post an example here, that would be wonderful. Perhaps just a bit of the calmness before the storm. I really think by doing this---showing this, could very well change our perception of just what the nocturnes were. As Schumann said: “Guns buried in flowers.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAcAWWU_0mE

at about minute 2. Not one of the best examples, but it does prove my point.



Thanks for reading,

And yet another example, the 55.1. And to think I used to be able to play this one. I remember it taking me 3 months to learn 6 measures. I believe we had a study group on this piece also. And to be totally honest, I never did conquer the very last page.


http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en#max1

About 3:15, it gets rather wild. Up to this point, I thought it a stately polonaise-like piece.

Kathleen

I often think of that famously awful line "It was a dark and stormy night" in connection with the nocturnes.

Well, Chopin did often suffer from insomnia....

The piece that immediately came to my mind when I first read your post was a nocturne that's perhaps quite often dismissed as being one of the weaker nocturnes. Nevertheless, I find it to be continually stirring and beautifully simple. I'm speaking, of course, of the Nocturne in A-flat major Op 32 No 2. Being in ternary form possibly makes it all the more powerful. It's beautiful melody flows away and slowly the tempestuous middle section builds and builds until you eventually arrive right back from where you came. It's absolutely fantastic and I'd like to share one of my favorite interpretations of this work:

Thank you so much, akonow. This nocturne is truly so beautiful and is a perfect example of Chopin's genius. How he can give us the mostt lovely melodies and then take us by complete surprise by interjecting that "something." I have given up on what to call it. Maybe, after we are dozing a bit at the beginning, he wakes us from our dream, and give us a true taste of reality. I believe his nocturnes are as close to masterpieces as we can come.

Oh, I shouldn't post this here, I guess. But I wanted to post it somewhere before I forget it. We all know that Chopin's music is a favorite of moviemakers. This one instance was truly strange.

About a week ago, I was watching a movie on TV about a serial killer. The main character had to visit an institution for the mentally and emotionally challengeed. What they used to call "looney bins" before we became PC, and thank goodness for that.

While the detective is talking to the director of this hospital in the main sitting room, a man (an inmate) was seated at the piano way in the corner. And what was he playing?...the 55.1 nocturne. And he was playing it quite wonderfully. I wish I knew what the director of the movie had in mind when he chose this piece to be played. But that might be a whole discussion of its own.

Kathleen

Of all of the piano repertoire, I think the Chopin Nocturnes are my favorite. Whenever I'm away from the piano for a while and come back, I always come back to the Nocturnes first. Op 27 No 1 is one of my old favorites and thanks for posting Rubinstein playing it. My favorite measure is where the key changes to A flat major. So unexpected...but wonderful! Now I want to go back and listen to more.

My favorite Nocturne is Op 27 No 2. There were a lot of things I liked about that Nocturne. One is the melody by accompanied by a similar voice in what seems like the parallel minor. The fluidity between the two is amazing. I also liked the hypnotic bass line. Many apparently like to play it quickly to emphasize their technique, but I like to make it more nocturne-like for expression. I also took a special liking to his etudes (both sets). For his more "technical" etudes, I found them to have a certain lyricism.