Frédéric Chopin · Romanticism
1810–1849
1839 · Piano alone · Nohant
Tonality
From the atril
Chopin had written a funeral march in 1837 and, two years later, he built this sonata around him in four movements. The march, third movement, has become the world's most famous funeral music, played in countless burials. Schumann, bewildered, wrote that Chopin had joined four of his craziest children.
From the piano, it's a stormy work. The first movement is agitated, almost without breath; the scherzo, violent and full of chord jumps. Then the march comes, with its severe and relentless rhythm in the bass, and in the center a trio of an unreal sweetness, as a happy memory. But the strangest thing is the end: a minute and a half of quick notes on both hands in unison, pianissimo, without melody or clear harmony. It has been compared to the wind that blows on the graves. Touch it is like disappearing in the fog.
What to hear
- The funeral march and its relentless rhythm.
- The trio of the march, sweet as a memory.
- The final enigmatic in unison.
