The polonaise made its first appearances in stylized dance music in the late 16th century. With his own polonaises, Chopin also declared his allegiance to his native Poland. In a way, the genre had fa...
Time and again, Chopin succeeded in giving different piano music genres their own individual characters, whether etudes, preludes, waltzes, scherzi or nocturnes. The Irishman John Field had already co...
Hardly unexpectedly for a genre created by Franz Schubert, Chopin's four Impromptus have a strongly improvisatory character, while still overflowing with fleet-footed lightness, as well as with dignit...
Next to the polonaises and the waltzes, the mazurkas are the third dance form which Chopin cultivated in his music. They constitute the largest of these three groups, boasting nearly 60 pieces. Chopin...
The early piano trio, the two piano concertos, the three piano sonatas and the late cello sonata op. 65 comprise Chopin's few contributions to sonata form, the principal form of the Classical era. Esp...
Scholars have long been trying to figure out the mystery of Chopin's one and only solo Fantasie. The highly individual form is a puzzle to all who prefer more traditional genre concepts. Is it a sonat...
Chopin's Nocturne in E flat major op. 9 no. 2 belongs without a doubt among the most beloved works of this genre, and perhaps even of Chopin's entire oeuvre. Echoing the operatic style, the sensual be...
Frédéric Chopin's 4 Scherzi are high points in the Romantic piano repertoire. Chopin here takes a traditional genre and fills it with radically new content. They are wild, demonic in tone, and there i...
