Chopin in Marseille, Scherzo No 3

Severe and prolonged was the nosebleed Chopin suffered on his return trip from Mallorca. In the company of George Sand and her two children, they were returning from a frustrated vacation started in November 1838, scheduled to escape the French winter. But the holliday lasted only three months because the weather, extremely favorable at the beginning ("the sky is like turquoise, sea like azure, mountains like emerald, air like heaven") changed dramatically in January causing a substantial deterioration in Frédérick's fragile health.

The homecoming
In a modest boat that also carried as passengers – in the cargo compartment, of course – a herd of pigs that growled day and night, they set off on their return to Barcelona in February 1839. Chopin is still bleeding from the nose, and Sand is on the verge of despair. Eight days after his arrival in the city, George sighs a French warship in the harbor and decides to talk with the captain, getting the doctor on board to see Frédérick and, good news, taking them all to Marseille. After 36 hours of stoic rocking, the four passengers arrived at the French port on February 25, 1839, the hemorrhage stopped thanks to the solicitous doctor, "and the endless care of my angel", Chopin notes – alluding George, we want to believe.

"Marseille is ugly" says Chopin. "All the literary mob chases George and the musical mob follows me. It's an old city though not ancient, and we are a little bored." As for Sand, she does not seem very happy in "this city of merchants and shopkeepers ...":

"We moved from one inn to another. Apart from the mistral we have a pretty good time. Chopin must not breathe cold air. The windy mistral days we stay at home and work each in his own ... Our existence is highly innocent and simple, almost primitive... "

On May 22 they return, not to Paris but to Nohant where the cozy summer house of Sand is located. Finally at home! exclaims Chopin, with some ease.

Chopin's Scherzos
Chopin had already managed to unlink the prelude from the fugue. He would soon separate the scherzo from the symphony and the sonata, particularly that of his closest model, the beethovenian, a playful or graceful scherzo, existing at least in the symphonies prior to the fifth, and whose purpose was to separate the allegro from the adagio or this one from the end of the work. Chopin would build with its metric four individual pieces, of a ternary nature, that is, first theme, second theme and return to the first theme, or structure A-B-A. The rhythm is in 3/4 and its speed is presto.

Scherzo No. 3 op 39 in C sharp minor
The Scherzo No 3 was composed or completed in 1839, in Mallorca, and published in 1840. It is dedicated to one of his closest pupils, Adolphe Gutmann.
Of stormy beginning, it then links up with a cantabile theme that is accompanied by descending arpeggios; finally a coda will lead to the high brilliant conclusion, with a "Picardy third", that is, a major chord when the piece is in a minor key, as it's the case.

The rendition is by the Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva, awarded with the first prize at the 2010 International Chopin Contest, in Warsaw.

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