POO: Chopin piano work

Aerosmith's recent enthusiasm for Romantic/post-Romantic piano music, and the enthusiastic response, got me re-listening a bunch of Chopin hits, and I'm eager to hear opinions, be re-introduced to other works of his

Although my favourite collection of Chopin works is his Etudes, I keep coming back to the Heroic Polonaise, A-flat, though I know it's one of his best-loved, most-played works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5k1wGLW8ns

I love the Eb-pedal intro and the expanding upper voicings, subject to an overwhelming variety of interpretations; the theme's 2/4 bridge (0:42 on Ashkenazy's video), with it's gorgeous descending suspensions; the second statement of the theme (1:03), which makes the first statement seems like mere foreshadowing; the abrupt shift to E major in the middle section; the hilarious left-hand writing, single instrument as orchestra at its best; the development, my goodness...

That said, my #1 pick is the Ballade #4. The transformation of theme to theme is unbearably beautiful, see (4:00) on Ashkenazy's version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXwWaMa99K4

my dumbshit answer is his first prelude, all 30 seconds of it. had a music theory epiphany about it in a college class a while back. it's brilliant and i love it.

berceuse always seems like a lovely thing to do with some free time & a piano

This is impossible.

@HPSCHD not at all dumbshit, that first prelude has some amazing voice leading, it goes by so quickly that you don't even notice
I love the way the melody is entirely syncopated, like an afterthought, that's a gorgeous prelude.

Ah, this is a nice Youtube for it, such a good lookin score

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuhZSARyov4

Another 32 perfect sec of arpeggiation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nj06dCQrBs

ultimate populist vote is Nocturne Op 9 No2 which is still my fave

Don't know the larger body of work at all but a friend gave me a scratchy old recording of Etude Op. 25 no. 3 on a mixtape (next to some Big Bill Broonzy) and I've loved it ever since. A quick search around YouTube leads to a lot of overly galloping renditions but this one was relaxed and flowery...maybe not correct but really lovely.

The A flat major Polonaise is as "heroic" as any baroque court music. That's saying a lot. And yet, it is also tragic.

Sonata No. 2 kills me but I want to plug the mazurkas, which are so dense with feeling & wit - tiny little prisms of tone and color

oh man there are unpublished Chopin mazurkas?

Over the years 1825-1849, Frédéric Chopin wrote at least 69 mazurkas, based on the traditional Polish dance (see mazurka):

58 have been published
45 during Chopin's lifetime, of which 41 have opus numbers
13 posthumously, of which 8 have posthumous opus numbers
11 further mazurkas are known whose MSS are either in private hands (2) or untraced (at least 9).

listening to them right now for the first time in a long while - to me they're like the Bach cello suites, very "formal" exercises tethered to their forms but somehow enriched by that - all the freedom of the sonata's gone, what's left is a small piece of dance music within which to put: everything

So many great pieces to choose from, but if I had to pick one I'd make it the 4th Scherzo.

two great performances:
Abbey Simon's 1990 studio recording
Sviatoslav Richter live at the Moscow Conservatory, late 1970s

Another piece I love is the F-sharp major Nocturne, Op. 15, No. 2. Kristian Zimerman's late-1980s recording (available on DVD) is perfection. (I love the nod of self-approval circa 0:50!)

This will make you smile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Un-n-y2qGY

Mine is one of the Mazurkas-- I can't remember its number-- it's in one of the sets with an opus number in the forties. One of the slower mazurkas, with the most achingly shifty harmonies in the history of ever.

Surely this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoIwCboTJAk

That's a great one! But no-- it's an even slower one, very sparse in texture. I first heard it on that old Kissin disc that had a selection of a dozen or so Mazurkas...

Probably Op 17 No 4...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b043xqkJvkA

That's the one! Damn I was so off abt the opus number! I'm usually pretty solid abt these things.

:.)
So beautiful

Étude Op. 10, No. 3

@Owen, lim dong hyek's Bb min Prelude did make me smile, that tempo is insane!

also, he cuet

totes

not enough marta argerich up in here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0nInkOn0zQ

btw the opening of mazurka op 68 no 2 is my ringtone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umO7QEA3oAQ

My favorite Chopin pianist plays my favorite Chopin piece. PS I do not have a decent excuse why I was not at this recital.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOwcSInU1II