Description
A work of early and astonishing genius. Formally, possibly the most daring thing Chopin wrote – a first movement comprising continuous motivic development, in which the exposition and recap switch places; the third a nocturne that plays not just with unusual meter (5/4) but demented phrase lengths, and the last a complex sonata-rondo that incorporates continuous development. (Other weirdnesses: moto perpetuo outer movements, heavily contrapuntal writing, and naked circle of 5th progressions.)
Listened to without prejudice, from the inside, this is a gorgeous and completely effective work. The first movement, in particular, will always completely defeat people who expect sonata-allegro form to go THEME 1 – BAM – NEW KEY HAHA – THEME 2 – BAM – CLOSING STUFF. But this movement doesn’t have that kind of argumentative directness, even compared to other monothematic sonatas. You’ve got to listen for its restless developmental sprawl, its doleful counterpoint (the opening gesture is taken right out of Bach’s BWV 773), the labyrinth of harmonic byways it cheerily leads you into before putting you straight (a medial caesura in the exposition that lands you confidently in E minor(!) before moving immediately retreating back into C minor; a recap in Bb minor). And the motivic manipulation is astonishing: the climactic passage beginning at 5:40 is built almost entirely off the work’s 2nd bar, even if you don’t notice at first.
One fun (if slightly reductive) way into mvt 1 is to read the exposition and recapitulation as swapped. The usual question posed by the exposition is “How will these themes come into the same key?”; and from the development, “How do we get back to the home key?” Both questions are now asked in the recap. The tonal contrast is all there, just not where you expect.
The other three movements are straightforwardly wonderful – the second whimsical, the third rapt, the last a headlong dash through some of the trickiest figuration Chopin wrote. There are people who will praise the middle movements of Chopin’s PCs and yet call mvt 3 “meandering”, even though the piano writing here is astonishing (mm.23-31, anticipating passages in both the 4th ballade and late Brahms). The movements are also unified in surprising ways: a rhythmic motif (long-short-short-long – hello Wanderer Fantasy!) prominently features in mvts 1, 2, and 4. The outer movements share additional connective tissue: tonal areas (Gm, Bbm), harmonic progressions (circles of 5ths), and scalar figuration.
[Thanks to Bartosz Maniecki for sending me his dissertation on this work, from which I got the connections to Bach and Schubert.]
Moog – the most alive-sounding, exultant. A surprising amount of playfulness, even in the thorniest passages. Constant kaleidoscopic shifts of articulation and phrasing in the 1st mvt; the repeat sees LH lines pushed to the fore. The leaping 3rds of the mvt 2 are “snapped” through with insouciance, and the mvt 3 melodic lines are projected with Mozartian purity (especially nice articulation on the scales at the end). The last movement bursts with colour; Moog’s got a real knack for seeing dramatic possibility and deploys this to great effect (the acceleration at m.177 and 241, the snaping of the LH running counterpoint).
00:00 – Mvt 1, Allegro maestoso
08:21 – Mvt 2, Minuet and trio
12:29 – Mvt 3, Larghetto
16:28 – Mvt 4, Finale
Andsnes – played with steely command and momentum – little rubato, but extremely precise articulation and hyperfine dynamic control (see the buildup from m.43; the staccato on every 4th RH note). No safety rubato even in treacherous passages (m.55), and places where you might expect a little agogic dwelling, especially in transitional and developmental sections, are smoothly joined together, allowing you to feel the big builds leading to the 1st/4th mvt climaxes. The last movement has a lot intensity, enhanced by Andsnes’ dramatic decision to take the second theme much slower than the first (m.84).
22:38 – Mvt 1, Allegro maestoso
31:54 – Mvt 2, Minuet and trio
36:41 – Mvt 3, Larghetto
40:57 – Mvt 4, Finale
Katsaris – vivid, propulsive. The phrasing in mvt 1 is free and gestural, giving the whole movement a nervous energy. His fondness for inner lines pays big dividends in a work as contrapuntal as this – see the canonic beginnings of the first two mvts (including the trio), and the long slithering lines of mvt 1’s development have never been given so much attention. Sometimes the interaction between both hands will generate a phantom line: see m.148. Repeats in mvt 2 are varied, and mvt 3 gets warm, generous treatment – no aching rubatos, the most ravishing passages simply played through with a smile. Mvt 4 is the most exciting on record; the speed is a big part of this, but also the detail – playful rubatos, roiling countermelodies, thumping accents (mm.37, 198).
47:45 – Mvt 1, Allegro maestoso
53:43 – Mvt 2, Minuet and trio
58:08 – Mvt 3, Larghetto
1:01:46 – Mvt 4, Finale