Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 01/01/1981, uploaded on 09/06/2015

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Two Nocturnes, op. 55

The next set of nocturnes followed a few years later, being composed during 1842-44 and were dedicated to Jane Stirling, a pupil and friend of Chopin’s. Though testaments to the composer’s masterly skill of his later years, particularly in regards to the second of the set, they are somewhat less satisfying than the dramatic essays which precede them. The first of the set, that in F minor, perhaps the most so, as its overall style, though undeniably Chopin, is rather simplistic. Consequently, the op. 55 nocturnes were largely neglected by concert pianists until the latter part of the 20^th century.

The F minor nocturne opens with a melancholy tune that circles glumly about the dominant beneath which a chordal accompaniment struggles to rise from the initial tonic. Chopin repeats the melody, but only with modest embellishments, and a further reappearance of the opening strains brings the piece’s first section to a close in the tonic key. Immediately, the central episode of this ternary design then begins with an agitated monophonic line in triplet rhythm and marked forte. This new idea alternates several times with a purely chordal idea before the stormy triplets subside into the left hand beneath a new melody of even greater pathos. Breaking off on a diminished seventh harmony, a sweeping chromatically-inflected descent through the tonic scale leads into the final bars before the return of the first theme, a tense stretto passage that closes on a half cadence. The opening theme at first returns unaltered, but is soon disturbed by the agitated triplets of the episode. Over a pedal F, at which point the coda begins, the music briefly touches on the key of the subdominant, but this modulation proves only to be a means of a bringing about a permanent change into the key of F major. Over a long sustained F major chord, arpeggios ascend quickly into the glistening upper register of the piano, as if the composer has suddenly been carried away from all his cares. A final cadence with rippled tonic chords and the nocturne comes to a serene ending.

On the other hand, the following E-flat major nocturne is farther removed from the straightforward approach of its companion. Instead of the clear-cut delineations of ternary form found in most of Chopin’s nocturnes, the second piece of op. 55 concerns itself with an endlessly evolving melody, developing like an unhindered stream of consciousness. In this manner it bears resemblance and warrants close comparison with the much earlier E-flat Nocturne of op. 9. While that earlier piece may be the more popular, the greater mastery of the later work cannot be denied. In compound meter, the melody unfolds over an unwavering accompaniment of broken chords that are beautifully enriched by the addition of chromatic appoggiaturas. Further added to the melody are occasional moments of counterpoint by means of the addition of a second voice beneath the principal melody, often adding even more succulent chromaticism to the texture. The piece reaches its high point with trills leading into a fortissimo reinforcement of the tonic key. From thence, the music subsides back into its unhurried ebb and flow, reaching eventually a coda of ethereal beauty.    Joseph DuBose

Recorded around September 1, 1965

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