Classical Music | Cello Music

Frédéric Chopin

Introduction and Polonaise Brillante  Play

Katherine Cherbas Cello
Stephanie Shih-yu Cheng Piano

Recorded on 01/20/2010, uploaded on 06/13/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

In 1828, at the young of age of eighteen, Frédéric Chopin, accompanied by a family friend, the zoologist Feliks Jarocki, for the first time ventured out into the world beyond his homeland of Poland. In Berlin, where Jarocki was to attend a scientific convetion, Chopin met both Felix Mendelssohn and Carl Friedrich Zelter, two of Germany’s leading musicians at the time. On the return trip back to Warsaw, Chopin was the guest of Prince Antoni Radziwill, a composer himself and amateur cellist. For the prince and his pianist daughter, Wanda, Chopin composed the Introduction and Polonaise brillante for piano and cello, one of the few works in the composer’s oeuvre not written specifically for the piano. Several years later in 1833 and after some revisions, Chopin published the work as his opus 3 and dedicated it to the renowned cellist Joseph Merk.

In true Chopin-esque fashion, the piano part is far from a mere accompaniment. Indeed, at times the pianist nearly steals the spotlight from the soloist with brilliant flourishes and passagework. Following a sweeping introduction in the piano, the cello enters in the second measure with a somewhat run-of-the-mill expressive melody of graceful turns and halftone appoggiaturas. The succeeding melody, which is further elaborated on throughout the course of the introduction, is more original with an intense lyricism about it. After closing on a half cadence, a cadenza prepares the arrival of the polonaise.

Two measures of introductory tonic and dominant harmonies in the piano begin the polonaise. Following this brief introduction, the cello announces the dance’s main theme which is immediately repeated by the piano. Though it is the cello that often carries the melody, the piano often engages in an ornamental accompaniment raising itself to a true partnership with the soloist. The middle portion of the polonaise is more complex, venturing into distant keys, yet the melodic quality is never lost. An extended coda, with both instruments engaged in brilliant flourishes brings the piece to a lively and exuberant close.        Joseph DuBose

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Introduction and Polonaise Brillante        Frédéric Chopin

This piece is one of only a handful of works that Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) wrote for anything other than solo piano.  When the composer was nineteen years old, he spent a week visiting Prince Radziwill on his estate near Warsaw.  The prince was an amateur cellist and one of his two daughters played the piano.  Chopin wrote the Polonaise during that visit for the two of them to play together, and he later wrote to a friend that the work was merely a salon piece, for casual entertainment, and was written to show off the lovely fingers of the young pianist.  Indeed, the original Polonaise has a very simple cello part, and a piano part that is full of flourishes and decorative runs.  In subsequent years, Chopin revised the Polonaise, adding a brief Introduction to turn the work into more of a concert piece.  In the years since Chopin's death, many cellists have re-written the piece to transfer some of the virtuosity from the piano part to the cello part.  The version being played today combines elements from the Leonard Rose published edition and Emanuel Feuermann's 1939 recording.       Katherine Cherbas