Frédéric Chopin: Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49
Many critics hear the Fantaisie as a reflection of Poland’s plight after the failed 1830 November Uprising against the Russian Empire, a grand anthem for a national victory that never was.
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Johannes Brahms: Sechs Klavierstücke, Op. 118
The rather dry title of Brahms’s Sechs Klavierstücke (Six Piano Pieces) conceals the enormous amount of feeling held within.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Rondo in A minor, K. 511
Most rondos are lively pieces, but there are also slow rondos, where each return of the melody suggests an inescapable sadness. Mozart’s A-minor Rondo is of this kind.
Frédéric Chopin: Mazurkas, Op. 59
Chopin wrote his mature mazurkas in exile, reinterpreting a Polish folk dance for Parisian salons. The Op. 59 Mazurkas are relatively late works, written in 1845, a decade-and-a-half after he last stepped foot on Polish soil.
Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 55, No. 2
A member of Chopin’s circle called this Nocturne “the dangerous one… the fatal nocturne.”
Claude Debussy: Images, Book 2
Debussy was not so interested in making musical versions of paintings as he was in getting at the same kinds of ideas that art did, but by other means.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 15 in F major, K. 533/494
There’s something cynical about Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 15, which takes a childlike idea and twists it into something quite adult.
Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49
In 1840 Robert Schumann declared Mendelssohn “the Mozart of the 19th century” in response to his Piano Trio No. 1.
Maurice Ravel: Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major
Ravel’s Violin Sonata No. 2 was a long time in the making, with the first ideas put down as early as 1922 and the premiere in 1927—all for about 17 minutes of music. He struggled with depression as his musical output slowed to a trickle.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 5, No. 2
Beethoven’s second cello sonata has an unusual form: its first two movements are combined, beginning with an Adagio and then transitioning into a more typical Allegro.