Upon returning from the unfortunate trip to Mallorca, the "family" made up of George Sand, his two sons and Frédéric Chopin, after an escape to Geneva where the weather was adverse again, finally landed in Nohant, George Sand's summer house, in May 1839.
The house, Louis XV style, was not a mansion but had all the comforts that in the nineteenth century could be aspired to. To enjoy the countryside, every year came till there personalities such as Balzac, Délacroix, Liszt and their partner Marie d'Agoult, the famous singer Pauline Viardot-García, and another great singer, a friend of Sand (likely her girlfriend), Marie Dorval.
The summer of 1839 was no different. Surrounded by her friends and in the company of "her three children", Mme Sand is happy. In the beautiful countryside, life goes peacefully between the singing of larks and nightingales. Guests are free to do as they please, until dinner time. Sand looks after them to the extent her obligations allow it because she must write one novel after another — the pension she receives from her ex-husband is not enough to pay for the house.
The new guest, Frédéric, gets up late. He has breakfast alone in his bedroom. Then walks, writes letters. After dinner, he plays the piano for the guests, accompanies Viardot or runs a four-handed fragment with eleven-year-old Solange, to whom he gives lessons. He also composes or amends what in Mallorca managed to be outlined, despite the circumstances. In a letter to his friend Fontana, he tells him that he is working hard on the sonata in B-flat minor, "which contains the funeral march that you already know." Indeed, Chopin has decided to add to his second sonata a "funeral march" composed two years before. The remaining three movements will be completed in Nohant, that summer of 1839.
The rendition is by the Russian pianist, Alexander Ghindin. Tokyo, April 2006.
First movement. Grave - Doppio movimento
Four imposing measures introduce the first theme (doppio movimento: at twice the previous speed). Second theme: more lyrical, in 1:03 minute. Chopin was demanded not to obey the rules of the piano writing of a first sonata movement: the recapitulation of the subjects is incomplete ... lack of handling of the traditional ways ... I prefer to believe that all this couldn't care less to Frédéric. Brilliant ending.
Second movement. Scherzo
The Italian word scherzo means "joke", "game" or "charade". In Nohant, some nights, there were plenty. The puppet theater was the great fun: the cloth dolls are made by Sand; Solange and Maurice, are the actors behind the scenes; Frédéric, when he doesn't show his talent for mimicry, accompanies the piano, improvising. It has been his idea and that is when he plays around. In music no. His scherzos are not cheerful in nature, and he left it stamped on the four independent pieces that bear that name. Nor is the case of this piece. Minute 1:15: a lyrical theme, which is quoted very briefly in 6:11, which ends the movement, in complete stillness.
Third movement. Marche Funébre - Lento
Tripartite structure, ABA, that is, first theme - second - return to the first theme. The famous Funeral March of Chopin, which has served to say goodbye to as many personalities who say goodbye to this world, of all colors. On the other hand, the second theme, Chopinian to the core (minute 2:33), has been used in a shortened version by more than one lobby pianist – I know – to take a break between "Bésame mucho" and "My way". As far as I know, nobody claimed for making them listen to Chopin's funeral march while they sipped their bloody mary, delighted with life.
Fourth movement Finale - Presto. (7:07) This brief piece of closure amazed the audience, and musicologists from another century would speak of early atonality. Chopin, on the other hand, only said that: "... after the march, the left hand chatter in unison with the right ...".
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