Chopin: Scherzo No 2, Op 31

Besides being a famous piano maker, Camile Pleyel was a remarkable pianist to the point that Chopin came to say of him: "Today there is only one man who knows how to play Mozart and this is Pleyel!". They met around 1832 in Paris and their friendship lasted for a lifetime.
Aware of Chopin's genius, once Pleyel knew him provided Frédérik with not one but two pianos: a large concert piano which dominated the small salon of Frédérik's apartment in Paris, and a black piano intended for his lessons. On two occasions Camile replaced the piano with a new one. First, in 1840 and then in 1848, when Frédérik was already very ill, on the verge of death. The devotee friend went so far as to send a piano to Mallorca while Chopin spent there a short time with George Sand.

So, it is not surprising that the piano Chopin selected for miss Maria Wodzinska, back in 1835, has been from the Pleyel company.
Every day of her life Maria would play on this piano, which remained always at her side, never abandoned. She even took it to Florence, where she went to live after marrying the administrator of her lands after she failed at his first marriage. She had earlier married a certain count Joseph Skarbeck, a neighbour from the countryside who, according to the words of a Chopin biographer, turned out to be a "degenerate" and from whom Maria divorced for "non-consummation of marriage".

Scherzo No 2, Op 31, in B flat minor
Composed and published in 1837, the year one after the dissolution of the love affair with Maria, is the most popular of his four scherzi (plural of scherzo). Chopin's idea of this musical form is utterly new. It is usually alleged to be a movement from a longer piece, say, a sonata, aimed at separating, for instance, the Allegro from the Adagio, or one of these from the end of the piece.

In Italian the word means joke, and therefore, the word is also used in indications of tempo or mood with which a piece should be played. Thus, scherzando indicates that a passage should be executed rather playfully.
Chopin's scherzo is different. First of all, it is a musical piece in its own right and has little playful. If they are jokes, they are terrifying ones. Written in ternary form (theme, 2nd theme, back to the first theme), its rhythmic structure is 3/4 and its speed is presto (very fast).

Zimerman's performance is outstanding. That's why we chose it, despite the abrupt end of the video. In truth, after the last high note we hear, there is no more music. That's all. The only thing missing is the subsequent silence, the loyal and inseparable ally in the experience of listening to music.

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