The sonata was overshadowed by the huge success of his second piano concerto, which premiered on November 24, 1901. It was first played in Moscow.

Composition

1. Lento – Allegro moderato (G minor)
2. Allegro scherzando (C minor)
3. Andante (E flat major)
4. Allegro mosso (G major)

The work takes approximately 30 minutes to perform.

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By Knushevitsky: cello

Lev Oborin: piano

part 1/5 (I)

part 2/5 (I)

part 3/5 (II)

part 4/5 (III)

part 5/5 (IV)

Sonata Op. 19 for Piano and Cello in G minor

1. Allegro agitato
2. Non allegro
3. Allegro molto

A typical performance lasts approximately 25 minutes.

By Alexei Sultanov

part 1/3

part 2/3

part 3/3

Piano Sonata Op. 36 No. 2 in B flat minor sheet music

It has three movements, and takes about 35 minutes to perform. The sonata is structured like a typical Classical sonata, with fast movements surrounding a slower, more tender second movement. The movements feature sprawling themes and ambitious climaxes within their own structure, all the while building towards a prodigious culmination. Although this first sonata is a substantial and comprehensive work, its successor, Piano Sonata No. 2 (Op. 36), written only 4 years later, became a much more enduring and regarded work.

The piece is structured as a typical sonata in the Classical period: the first movement is a long Allegro moderato (moderately quick), the second a Lento (very slow), and the third an Allegro molto (very fast).

1. Allegro moderato

The substantial first movement Allegro moderato presents most of the thematic material and motifs revisited in the later movements.

Juxtaposed in the intro is a motif revisited throughout the movement: a quiet, questioning fifth answered by a defiant authentic cadence, followed by a solemn chord progression. This densly thematic expression is taken to represent the turmoil of Faust’s mind.

1. Lento

Although the shortest in length and performance time, the second movement Lento provides technical difficulty in following long melodic lines, navigating multiple overlapping voices, and coherently performing the detailed climax, which includes a small cadenza.

1. Allegro molto

Ending the sonata is the furious third movement Allegro molto.

Rachmaninoff played early versions of the piece to Oskar von Riesemann (who later became his biographer), who did not like it. Konstantin Igumnov expressed interest upon first hearing it in Moscow, and following his suggestion Rachmaninoff cut about 110 bars.

The sonata had a mediocre evaluation after Igumnov’s premier in Moscow. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov had died several months previously, and the burden of heading Russian classical music had fallen on this all-Rachmaninoff programme of October 17, 1908. Although the concert, which also included Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Chopin (Op. 22, 1903), was “filled to overflowing”, one critic called the sonata dry and repetitive, however redeeming the interesting details and innovative structures were.

Today the sonata remains less well-known than Rachmaninoff’s second sonata, and is not as frequently performed or recorded. Champions of the work tend to be pianists renowned for their large repertoire. It has been recorded by Alexis Weissenberg, John Ogdon, Howard Shelley (as part of his supposedly complete Rachmaninoff recordings for Hyperion Records), and Livia Rev (likewise for Naxos Records). Leslie Howard also carries it in his repertoire.

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By John Ogdon

part 1/5 (II)

part 2/5 (I)

part 3/5 (II)

part 4/5 (III)

part 5/5 (III)

Piano Sonata Op. 28 No. 1 in D minor sheet music

The sonata consists of four movements, similar in structure to the second sonata, with a lyrical largo replacing the funeral march.

1. Allegro maestoso
2. Scherzo: Molto vivace
3. Largo
4. Finale: Presto non tanto; Agitato

A performance of the work lasts around 25-35 minutes.

The work opens on a martial note, the heavy chords and filigree in the opening of the first movement giving way to a more melodic second theme, eventually leading to the conclusion of the exposition in the relative major, D. Motives of the original theme emerge in the development, which, unconventionally, returns to the second theme (as opposed to the first) for the recapitulation. The movement concludes in B major.

The scherzo, in the distant key of E flat and in strict ternary form, characterised by ebullient quaver runs in the right hand, with a more demure chordal middle section. It uses a theme from the composer’s First Ballade, Unlike the scherzo of the B-flat minor sonata (and, indeed, the rest of Chopin’s contributions to the genre outside of the sonatas), it is exceptionally short, barely lasting two minutes in an average performance.

Despite a stormy introduction in dotted rhythm, the largo is serene, almost nocturne-like; a mellow and expansive middle section, again characterised by quaver figuration in the background of an intensely harmonic line, separates the more cantabile outer sections in B major. It is the most musically profound of the movements (Kraemer, 1991), in terms of a sustained melody and innovative harmonic progression; it rivals the extensive first movement in length alone.

Its dramatic introduction-a rising harmonic progression left hanging on a high dominant seventh-aside, the finale, in B minor, is pervaded by a “galloping” rhythm; emphasis in the melodic line on the first and third beats of each half-measure outlines the fifth through eighth degrees of a harmonic minor scale (lending prominence to the augmented second between the sixth and seventh scale degrees). The overall melody, chromatic yet rooted in the minor tonic, contributes a dark mood to these primary sections. A more triumphant second theme in B major, repeated twice in the movement’s A-B-A-B-A form, appears quite suddenly at the conclusion of the first (likewise when repeated); eventually rising during fleet-fingered runs over a left-hand melody, it tumbles back to a dramatic restatement of the main theme in both of its appearances. The piece concludes in a jubilant B major coda.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By Emil Gilels part 1/4

By Emil Gilels part 2/4

By Emil Gilels part 3/4

By Emil Gilels part 4/4

Sonata in B minor Op. 58 No. 3 sheet music

The sonata consists of four movements.

1. Grave; Doppio movimento
2. Scherzo
3. Marche funèbre: Lento
4. Finale: Presto

The first movement features a stormy opening theme and a gently lyrical second theme. The second contains a calmer, more relaxed melodic theme. The third movement begins and ends with the celebrated funeral march in B flat minor which gives the sonata its nickname, but has a calm interlude in D flat major. The finale contains a whirlwind of unison notes with unremitting (not a single rest or chord until the final bars) unvarying tempo or dynamics (changes of volume); James Huneker, in his introduction to the American version of Mikuli edition of the Sonatas, quotes Chopin as saying “The left hand unisono with the right hand are gossiping after the March”. Others have remarked that the fourth movement is “wind howling around the gravestones”.

The Sonata confused contemporary critics who found it lacked cohesion. Robert Schumann suggested that Chopin had in this sonata “simply bound together four of his most unruly children.” (See Schirmer’s modern reprint of the Mikuli edition)

Funeral March

As noted above, the 3rd movement is structured as a funeral march played with a Lento interlude. While the term “funeral march” is perhaps a fitting description of the 3rd movement, complete with the Lento interlude in D flat major, when the “Chopin Funeral March” is actually played (typically by a brass ensemble) in a funeral procession, only the part in B flat minor is used. This “funeral march” adapted for brass as described, has become well known in popular culture. It was also used at the state funerals of John F. Kennedy and those of Soviet leaders, including Leonid Brezhnev. It was transcribed for full orchestra by the English composer Sir Edward Elgar in 1933 and its first performance was at his own memorial concert the next year. It was played at the graveside during Chopin’s own burial at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

The sonata’s opening bars allude to Beethoven’s last piano sonata, Op. 111. The basic sequence of scherzo, funeral march with trio, and animated, resolving finale, repeats that of Beethoven’s sonata in A-flat major, Op. 26. Chopin’s first movement, however, is animated and in sonata form, unlike Beethoven’s Andante con variazioni. Chopin was known to have admired these two sonatas of Beethoven’s.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By Grigory Sokolov part 1/3

By Grigory Sokolov part 2/3

By Grigory Sokolov part 3/3 “Marche funèbre”

By Vladimir Horowitz part 1/4

By Vladimir Horowitz part 2/4

By Vladimir Horowitz part 3/4 “Marche funèbre”

By Vladimir Horowitz part 4/4

Sonata in B flat minor Op. 35 No. 2 sheet music

The Sonata is in 4 movements, as follows:

1. Allegro maestoso in C minor – The most classical part of the work, it incorporates elements such as a slow theme beginning with a mordent, counterpoint, and long periods when the left hand carries the theme. It is in the form of a sonata, and is technically challenging compared to the rest of the work. From a modern point of view, its ratio of innovation to technical difficulty is low, meaning that it takes a lot of work to master for very little of the innovation that characterises Chopin’s other works. In one respect this movement breaks from tradition completely – the second group of themes is based in C minor as much as is the first, so that the dramatic contrast of key which Cedric Thorpe-Davie among others identify as the heart of sonata form is lost.
2. Menuetto in E-flat major- A simple, delightful minuet similar in style to those in the works of Beethoven and Mozart. Compared to the previous movement, the texture is much lighter, and the work is readily hummable whereas the Allegro’s theme is very pianistic and difficult to sing. This movement is frequently performed separately with the Larghetto following, both having a relaxed light tone contrasting with the rest of the work.
3. Larghetto in A-flat major – The word larghetto in the Italian language means something like a little wide (broadly). In music it means somewhat slowly. This piece is set in time, which among pieces of that era makes it very unusual. According to musical theory of that era, a bar with 5 beats is logically divided into two simpler bars, one of 3 beats and another of 2 beats, and most of the few such pieces have the 3-beat part first, but this movement works the other way around, with first a 2-beat and then a 3-beat part of each bar, meaning that the 3rd beat of each 5-beat bar carries a secondary accent, which is marked explicitly in certain bars but not others. In other places, it can be inferred, and in still other places Chopin seems to defy this convention and not expect this. This is just one of many unusual characteristics of this short movement which make it delight to some, but a failed novelty in the mind of Huneker, in his introduction to the 1895 American publication of the Mikuli edition of the work. Other curiosities of this movement include exotic cross-rhythms: 5 against 4, 9 against 4, 14 against 3, and 7 against 4 and sotto voce low bass melody notes played by the right hand crossing over the left.
4. Finale – Presto – Like the first movement, this movement hearkens back to the style of Beethoven (but not Mozart), but with a much livelier tempo. Its only serious criticism is great length (14 pages), with much repetition (though with variation).

Of all works of Chopin, this is among the least recorded and quite different from other well-known Chopin works. However, as noted above, the middle two movements show a different Chopin, one not rigidly adhering to the requirements of the conservatory and showing some of the innovative spirit so evident in his later works.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By Sofya Gulyak part 1/4

By Sofya Gulyak part 2/4

By Sofya Gulyak part 3/4

By Sofya Gulyak part 4/4

Sonata No. 1 Op. 4 in C minor sheet music