I have recently rediscovered my love of the music of the Polish composer Frederick Chopin. His pieces for solo piano are renowned for being some of the finest music ever written for the instrument. I don’t know of many, if any, pianists who don’t have Chopin in their repertoire…..do you?

However, todays post isn’t about his solo piano music but the second of his two piano concertos. I have drawn heavily on an article from 2018 by Calvin Dotsey on The Houston Symphony site as he describes the piece far better than I ever could.

Though he published it second, Chopin’s Piano Concerto in F minor was actually the first concerto he composed. After a surprisingly successful impromptu solo debut in Vienna, the nineteen-year-old composer returned home to Warsaw to compose a concerto that he could play on tours in the future. Chopin completed it during the fall of 1829 and gave the premiere in Warsaw the following March, where it was enthusiastically received.

The first movement begins with a substantial orchestral passage that introduces its main themes: The first is a Romantic melody of stark dynamic contrasts in F minor; the second, a more lyrical one introduced by the woodwinds in A flat major. When the piano enters, it reinterprets the first and second themes with ornamentation inspired by the expressive embellishments of bel canto opera singers. Even though the piano is technically a percussion instrument, Chopin was a master of creating smooth, singing, legato melodies for it. These lyrical themes are bridged by exquisitely crafted virtuoso passages that show Chopin’s sensitivity to the sonority of the piano. After a brief but intense passage for orchestra, the pianist returns to develop the ideas introduced earlier. Beginning tranquilly, the music become inexorably more tumultuous, building to a fiery passage for orchestra. The soloist then returns with the first theme, which quickly transforms into the second. The movement concludes with virtuoso passagework and a decisive orchestral coda in F minor.

In a letter to a friend, Chopin confessed that the slow second movement of the concerto was inspired by Konstancja Gladkowska, a young singer who was a classmate of his at the conservatory in Warsaw: “Perhaps to my misfortune, I have met my ideal and have served her faithfully for six months, without speaking to her about my feelings. I dream about it: under her inspiration, the adagio of my Concerto in F minor and, this morning, the little waltz that I’m sending you (The Waltz in B minor, Op. 69 No. 2), have been born….I tell to the piano what I confide to you.”

Unfortunately for the shy composer, this music is all that came of his unspoken infatuation. Many critics continue to regard this movement as one of his loveliest creations, comparing it to the nocturnes he would compose later. After a brief orchestral introduction, the piano plays a long, singing, poetic melody. This leads to a contrasting central section, which begins dramatically with tremolo strings. Above them the pianist imitates operatic recitative, as if speaking instead of playing music. The lyrical melody then reappears, and the movement ends as it began with the orchestral introduction. 

Listening to the second movement it is hard not to be drawn into and moved by the circumstances of its composition. That sadness he must have felt as he put quill to paper is all too apparent. The passage imitating opera recitative could certainly be equated with the lovestruck composer silently talking to himself. What he is saying we will never know but out of that yearning came one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written for piano and orchestra.

The finale begins with a melody in the style of a mazurka, a type of Polish dance. Virtuoso passagework then leads to a contrasting, rustic theme in A flat major accompanied by strings playing col legno, with the wood of the bow. After the opening mazurka theme returns, a horn solo introduces a brilliant, F major coda.

I have many recordings of this concerto in my collection but the pianist who I always return to is, of course, Martha Argerich. In this recording taken from 1978 or there about she pulls out all the stops and gives us a performance so beautiful that it never ceases to make me cry. If you only watch and listen to a bit of it go to 13:14 in and watch until 21:40. Look at her face while she is playing. She is feeling every note and her expression as the movement comes to a close tells me that she understands exactly how Chopin felt as he composed this exquisite music.