The name Frédéric Chopin is essentially synonymous with music for piano, especially solo piano. All pianists and lovers of piano music owe a debt to Chopin, who revolutionized and expanded the possibilities of 19th century piano music.
Throughout his professional life, Chopin found himself torn between performance and composition; he was equally skilled at both. His contemporaries were also equally divided. Robert Schumann wrote, “If a genius such as Mozart were to appear today, he would write Chopin concertos rather than Mozart ones,” and pianist Anton Rubenstein exclaimed, “The piano bard, the piano mind, the piano soul is Chopin.”
In the tradition of composer/pianists that began with Mozart, Chopin composed his two piano concertos as vehicles for his own self-promotion. When the young Pole arrived in Paris in 1830 he was unknown; the concertos allowed him to demonstrate both his dazzling artistry at the keyboard and his deft compositional skills. Both of Chopin’s concertos emphasize the soloist’s role with crystalline, glittering passages, while the orchestra serves as an accompanist.
Scholars have likened Chopin’s melodies in the F Minor Concerto to the soaring lyricism of Vincenzo Bellini’s opera arias, a comparison that reflects the friendship and mutual admiration shared between the two composers. Both men prioritized melody over harmony, and spotlighted their melodic themes with understated accompaniments.
While attending the Warsaw School of Music, 19-year-old Chopin met and fell in love with another student, Polish soprano Konstancja Gładkowska. Gładkowska became Chopin’s muse; he paid homage to her in both his piano concertos with the expressive, vocally conceived “piano arias” featured in the middle movements.
In referring to Gładkowska, Chopin told a friend, “I have – perhaps to my own misfortune – already found my ideal, whom I worship faithfully and sincerely. Six months have elapsed, and I haven’t yet exchanged a syllable with her of whom I dream every night – she who was in my mind when I composed the Adagio [Larghetto] of my Concerto.” The Larghetto opens with an exquisitely languid melody. The middle section features an instrumental version of an impassioned operatic recitative, complete with tremolo strings, and the dreamy opening melody concludes the Larghetto with a rapturous sigh.
In the finale, Chopin features both the Viennese waltz and the mazurka, a dance from his native Poland. Both employ ¾ time, and the music flirts coquettishly between the two. These lighter interludes are offset by more intense episodes, but the overall mood of this movement is free and playful. Once again, the piano is the main purveyor of thematic material; midway through the movement, the horns enter into a dialogue with the soloist. The final section rushes headlong toward a lissome, sparkling conclusion.
After the premiere, Chopin was disappointed by the audience’s reaction. In a letter to a friend, he wrote, “My first concert … did not make on the general public the impression I thought it would … it seems to me that people felt they had to show interest (‘Ah, something new!’) and pretend to be connoisseurs.”
© Elizabeth Schwartz.