Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Fryderyk Chopin

Sonata No. 2, Op. 35 (arr. for two pianos by Camille Saint-Saëns)

 

Fryderyk Chopin composed three piano sonatas. The first, Op. 4, is a youthful work and is for the most part ignored by performers. The other two sonatas, on the contrary, are fully mature, musically rich works, and have always been part of most pianists’ repertoires. The Sonata No. 2, Op. 35, was written in 1837-39; the Funeral March, which eventually became the third movement, was the first one that Chopin composed, in the sorrowful wake of his failed engagement to Maria Wodzinska. The other movements were written thereafter, in 1838 (first and last movements) and 1839 (Scherzo). The whole sonata is pervaded with feelings of anguish and sorrow, as is clear not only in the Funeral March but also in the tumultuous first movement and the tormented Scherzo. The Finale, Presto, is highly unusual – a sort of perpetual motion in which the two hands play the same melodic pattern an octave apart; in little more than a minute and a half of music, all passion seems to fall progressively away until it disappears altogether. Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 will be played in a two-piano arrangement made by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1907.

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1. Grave - Doppio movimento
2. Scherzo
3. Marche funèbre
4. Finale (Presto)

Performers

Performance