Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin,was a Polish composer and
virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, who wrote
primarily for the solo piano. He gained and has
maintained renown worldwide as one of the leading
musicians of his era, whose "poetic genius was based on
a professional technique that was without equal in his
generation." Chopin was born in what was then the Duchy
of Warsaw, and grew up in Warsaw, which after 1815
became part of Congress Poland. A child prodigy, he
completed his musical education...(+)
Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin,was a Polish composer and
virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, who wrote
primarily for the solo piano. He gained and has
maintained renown worldwide as one of the leading
musicians of his era, whose "poetic genius was based on
a professional technique that was without equal in his
generation." Chopin was born in what was then the Duchy
of Warsaw, and grew up in Warsaw, which after 1815
became part of Congress Poland. A child prodigy, he
completed his musical education and composed many of
his works in Warsaw before leaving Poland at the age of
20, less than a month before the outbreak of the
November 1830 Uprising.
Frédéric Chopin wrote a number of preludes for piano
solo. His cycle of 24 Preludes, Op. 28, covers all
major and minor keys. In addition, Chopin wrote three
other preludes: a prelude in C? minor, Op. 45; a piece
in A? major from 1834; and an unfinished piece in E?
minor. These are sometimes referred to as Nos. 25, 26,
and 27, respectively.
Chopin's 24 Preludes, Op. 28, are a set of short pieces
for the piano, one in each of the twenty-four keys,
originally published in 1839. Chopin wrote them between
1835 and 1839, mostly in Paris, but partially at
Valldemossa, Mallorca, where he spent the winter of
1838–39 and where he, George Sand, and her children
went to escape the damp Paris weather. In Majorca,
Chopin had a copy of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier,
and as in each of Bach's two sets of preludes and
fugues, his Op. 28 set comprises a complete cycle of
the major and minor keys, albeit with a different
ordering. Most of his préludes were already finished
before setting foot on Majorca, however, he did
finalize them there, as referenced by him in his
letters to Pleyel: "I have finished my préludes here
on your little piano...".
The Prélude in Bb Minor (Op. 28 No. 16) Presto con
fuoco, the sixteenth Prelude has long been a favorite
of the virtuosi. Six stoic chords set the stage for an
outburst of intense fingerwork in the most bravura
style. Starts with six heavily accented chords before
progressing to a virtuosic impromptu-like passage.
Vladimir de Pachmann said of it, "The sixteenth is my
great favorite! It is le plus grand tour de force in
Chopin. It is the most difficult of all the preludes
technically, possibly excepting the nineteenth. In this
case, presto is not enough. It should be played
prestissimo, or, better still, vivacissimo."
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preludes_(Chopin)).
Although composed for solo piano, I created this
Interpretation of the Prélude in Bb Minor (Op. 28 No.
16) for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION