Scherzo No. 2 (Chopin)

Chopin Scherzo no. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31, Alice Gi-Young Hwang
Frederic Chopin - scherzo no. 2 in B flat minor, op. 31

The Scherzo No. 2 in B♭ minor, Op. 31 is a scherzo by Frédéric Chopin. The work was composed and published between 1835 and 1837,[1] and was dedicated to Countess Adèle Fürstenstein. As pianist David Dubal has written,[2] Robert Schumann compared this scherzo to a Byronic poem, "so overflowing with tenderness, boldness, love and contempt." According to Wilhelm von Lenz, a pupil of Chopin, the composer said that the renowned sotto voce opening was a question and the second phrase the answer: "For Chopin it was never questioning enough, never soft enough, never vaulted (tombe) enough. It must be a charnel-house." Dubal wrote that critic James Huneker "exults": "What masterly writing, and it lies in the very heart of the piano! A hundred generations may not improve on these pages."[2]

  1. ^ Chopin, Fréderic (1979). Ekier, Jan (ed.). Scherzi (in German and English). Wien: Wiener Urtext Edition. pp. III. ISMN 979-0-50057-061-5.
  2. ^ a b Dubal, David (2004). The Art of the Piano: Its Performers, Literature, and Recordings. Amadeus Press. p. 469. ISBN 1-57467-088-3.