Chopin Nocturne in E major Op. 62 no. 2, Analysis/Performance

[@FerdinandGommers]

Claudio Arrau plays somewhat the same tempo. I think this is the most beautiful. For me this piece is being comfortable with a problem/situation after time. Embracing the things that can hurt. A little the same as what you said about seeing it from a distance.

[@joeykremple]

Thank you for showing us your hands in that difficult middle section. This is arguably one of the greatest nocturnes ever composed.

[@grahamtwist]

As one of the early Romantics, Chopin certainly championed the expression of the self in all of its countless shapes and forms. His compositions strike as speaking directly from the heart and he was a master of the ‘character piece’ - whether impetuous and/or a soulful confession, he could create small moments of emotion, mood, and poetic imagery that were succinct and truly affecting. The pianist and music critic, Orrin Howard (1924 - 2015) noted how the Nocturnes are a very special species in the Chopin canon: “for in sighing soulfulness and ephemeral expressiveness, most of them represent the composer at his most intimate”. Although John Field has been credited with originating the genre of the romantic ‘night piece’, Herbert Weinstock remarks in his book, ‘Chopin’, that Fryderyk Franciszek “took the essentials of the nocturne nature and intensified them a thousandfold.” So not only do the nineteen Nocturnes vary in length, but also in emotional tenor - some dreamy, some teary heart-on-sleeve, some chins-up stoic. So what does your preferred slower tempo achieve, Cole, particularly at the outset? Well, I think it ensures we really feel all the poignancy below the surface. The Nocturne might be in E Major, but the often unexpected harmonic language creates tensions that quickly build and suddenly resolve in waves throughout the piece. I see the man himself laid bare in all his vulnerabilities and reclusiveness in this performance, and the closing bars are just so exquisitely tender . . . more ‘adieu’ than ‘au revoir’.

[@anaghshetty]

Your insightful comments are an added bonus!

[@MoiAussi18]

What a wonderful analysis. I search high and low for this kind of thing and usually in vain. Very many thanks.

[@GreenTea4]

the greatest nocturne he ever wrote and probably my favorite piece of his! great analysis!

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Thank you!

[@Mo-MuttMusic]

Thanks for sharing. I love the tempo. It enhances the introspective feel of the piece. The mood reminds me of Chopin's "Nocturne in E-flat Major (Op. 9, No. 2), which I love. Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Thank you! I never noticed, but these two nocturnes open with the exact same interval (scale degree 5-scale degree 3). Maybe Chopin was consciously looking back to one of his earlier works?

[@tonphammusic]

Wow from what I’ve heard so far, this is some of your best work along with the Earl Wild Gershwin etudes. You’ve given new life to this nocturne, funny that a recording of Pogorelich playing this same nocturne was just uploaded where he chooses an identical tempo. While I have grown weary of most of Chopin’s music this will always remain a favorite.

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Thank you! I'll need to take a listen to the Pogorelich recording.

[@iianneill6013]

@@TheIndependentPianist The Pogo is the only other recording of Op 62, No. 2 I have come across that invests it with the same valedictorian insight of Claudio Arrau's performance. I am listening to yours at the moment, and it is also very moving.

[@iianneill6013]

Considering that we are at the complete opposite ends of the spectrum of opinion on Erwin Nyiregyhazi's interpretation of Liszt's Vallee d'Obermann, I am really surprised that we are in complete accord about Chopin's Nocturne Op 62, No. 2. After my first encounter with the complete Chopin Nocturnes in a boxset by Claudio Arrau many years ago, it was the end of Op 62, No. 2 which kept haunting me in my memory. It's become my most treasured Chopin piece. I put into words ideas that closely matched yours: i.e., that it felt like Chopin looking back over the beautiful but painful memories of his life from the standpoint of someone about to leave that life, in the Wordsworthian sense of "emotion recollected in tranquility". Except Chopin's tranquillity here is more a product of incredible self-control and restraint - tinged bitterly with regret. Those ending notes rank among the most profound in music. I get the very strong feeling that Chopin does not want to die, but he knows with certainty that it is inevitable and soon, and he is telling us farewell.

[@zamyrabyrd]

Lovely tempo, time to savor melody and harmony! I am reminded of the B minor sonata, op.58 from 1844, in particular, the mood and figurations in the left hand.

[@andrzejnowak7]

The E major prelude performed by Serigio Fiorentino was a discovery for me at one time. And this was because Fiorentino, surprisingly😉, interpreted the designation 'largo' as 'largo' rather than 'andante'. With your interpretation of this nocturne, you have allowed me to experience something similar once again.

[@sophiathelast]

I love the tempo you played it at, it reminds me of nocturne 48 1 which is dense and deep in character just like this one! I love Chopin omgzzz

[@shlomostate1623]

Beautifully performed and analyzed. This brought me straight down memory lane.

[@WaltzTime]

This was a beautiful and highly affecting performance!

[@feinberg4625]

Have you heard Pogorelich's recording? He seems to agree with your perspective of the piece :)

[@iianneill6013]

And Claudio Arrau

[@caterscarrots3407]

I have also always thought that Chopin's pieces in general and particularly the nocturnes are played a little fast. I go slower than most pianists with Chopin to bring out more of the expressive qualities and frankly, to make fast pieces like the Op. 18 waltz just ever so slightly easier for me since that Allegro to Presto shift is always so hard when I'm speeding up from an Andante starting tempo. Like to go from Andante at 80 BPM to Allegro at 120 BPM, piece of cake. Molto Allegro at 160 BPM to Presto at 180 BPM on the other hand, half the tempo distance of the other jump, super difficult, like I generally need to start thinking of a different note than the time signature as my beat.

[@Pacmanpikachu]

Very interesting video! 👍

[@zakzaki9542]

Excellent performance. I definitely prefer his op 55 no 2 though. It has less of an emotional range than this piece but the feeling of longing that Chopin creates is amazing

[@TheIndependentPianist]

That one is amazing as well of course-also Op 62 no 1 is quite extraordinary. Chopin was really hitting it out of the park left and right by that time in his life.

[@andreasvandieaarde]

Beautiful performance, I am not very familiar with Chopin's nocturnes outside of the relatively mainstream ones so this was a nice video to find

[@jfpary7336]

Beautifully done. One question: why do you add a measure with those high notes in arpeggio at 11min 13? Is it in your sheet music like an alternative version of this passage written by Chopin and wanted by him?Is it just your point of view? Never seen that before. Maybe it's not really necessary.

[@_PROCLUS]

Sviatoslav Richter plays the Nocturne in this tempo

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Yes! One of the few-although he does speed up later on in the piece. You’re obviously a cultured listener to spot that. It was my initial inspiration for this tempo, although I ended up playing the entire piece slower than usual, and not just the opening/ending.

[@iianneill6013]

Incidentally, another very successful interpretation of Chopin in a slow tempo is Raoul Pugno's performance of Nocturne Op. 15, No. 2. Pugno was a child prodigy and opera composer who turned to concertising in his forties to earn some money. He stunned the world with his sctintillating _jeu de perle_ technique. He was also instructed at one time by a Chopin pupil and he cites the pupil's authority on this tempo. But I don't think we need that authority to accept it - for me this is the greatest performance of Op 15, No. 2. kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGTRomWNiN2XirM

[@iianneill6013]

In later life Raoul Pugno also became the teacher of Ernst Levy ...

[@einberteinbert]

😍

[@patricwalker3551]

No one says that btw. Okay one minute in wasting my time. Let's go

[@ojohnoho]

Congrats on making a presence for yourself among the plethora of talented younger American pianists. The analysis parts of your videos are interesting and informative, if analysis is what viewers want. As far as this Nocturne is concerned, it's obviously -- as you admit -- very, very slow. However, for me, it's not the actual tempo that is the problem, but a serious lack of phrasing.

[@marcus8258]

Did we listen to the same performance? I found his playing both refined and very moving.

[@zdzislawmeglicki2262]

Gawd! Waaay too slow. Take a hint from Rubinstein.

[@jisyang8781]

Look rubestein, this is played at the exactly right tempo. Rubinstein misses the point of the idea of nocturne. Listen to Claudio Arrau who understood it. Igo Pogorelich played it more slower btw.

[@patricwalker3551]

Bold move with the history lesson. I expect way too much from you at this point. God and you keep talking.

[@DanielFahimi]

I never really understood this hype Chopin received. For what reason exactly? He composed some good works, but are they really that great to classify Chopin as one of the greats? They are relatively small portions of his extremely small oeuvre. I find him to be very passive and boring. His music...... is basically just background salon music. Just take one of his works like the Op. 9 No. 1, or Op. 55 No. 1. Look at how repetitive it is. Even his most celebrated compositions like the F Minor Ballade is nothing but copy paste of the same inane tune. After the opening, we hear a 20 sec tune in the key of F Minor. Does Chopin do what any composer would do and elaborate on the tune? No! He repeats again, in the relative major. After that's over, do we hear development? Nope! We hear it again, in F Major! Okay! So, then what do we hear? We hear the same thing repeated AGAIN!!!!! 2 mins of meaningless garbage! He wasted TWO minutes of our time repeated the same 20 sec tune over and over again! I really don't know how it found its way to concert halls.

[@TheIndependentPianist]

I can't tell if you are really serious with these "incendiary" comments or if you are just trying to goad me into replying at this point...but hey I'm happy to discuss it with you! Actually I find your criticism of the F minor Ballade kind of mystifying. If you are trying to accuse him of being over repetitious there are far better pieces to use. For starters there is an extremely elaborate development of the main theme starting in m. 46 which also goes to a completely new harmonic destination. Then there is a canonical version of the theme at m.135, the kind of fantasy like version at m. 152, all connected with a wealth of supporting material-written in a refined and complex contrapuntal manner. The "repetitious" version of the theme is only the first step in an elaborate free-form theme and variations-with aspects of sonata form incorporated as well. It's a fascinating and original idea for a large scale piece, all the more surprising from the seemingly conservative Chopin. Unfortunately you do need an attention span longer than 2 minutes to enjoy the piece :-) I kid, I kid! Writing his music off as salon music is also a little odd to me. Sure he did write salon pieces-they are mostly among his earliest pieces, so Op.9 no. 1 I suppose is as good an example as any. It is a pretty intensely expressive piece to just be labeled "background music." It's also worth remembering that much of the greatest music written during the 19th century was intended for salon performance-songs of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms anyone? So just saying that a work is intended for an intimate setting does not necessarily mean that it is less worthy of attention. And the matter of repetition-well this is kind of subjective. There is no doubt that repetition, at some level, is pretty much essential for sustaining musical structure. Something about the abstract nature of musical sound seems to require this-notwithstanding certain experiments to the contrary. Chopin did start out with a more classical bias in form, so a work like Op.9 No. 1 is fairly repetitive, although no more so than the nocturnes of Field, and many of the greatest works of Schumann, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven etc etc. I guess my own feeling would be, that the intensity of what he is writing, and the originality of it, compensate. At least in the hands of a master performer. And maybe it's just me, but I actually find that rather a large percentage of his oeuvre is of an astonishingly high level of technical and emotional mastery. From 1829 on there is hardly a piece that isn't a masterwork: Etudes, Mazurkas, Waltzes, Preludes, Nocturnes, Ballades, Scherzi, Polonaises, Polonaise-Fantasy, 2nd and 3rd sonatas, the Cello Sonata, the Barcarole, Fantasie... Not pieces to be taken lightly! And I think his 65 opus were pretty impressive, considering what a perfectionist he was, and that he only lived to the age of 39. This is all highly subjective of course... If you don't like Chopin, then by all means, don't listen to him! I personally think you are missing out of course. 🙂

[@jisyang8781]

Wtf did I just read? Suffering from Dunning-Kruger effect?? Hey kid, go look up and watch Gerrick Ohlsson's interview on Chopin about 10 years ago at UCLA.

[@DanielFahimi]

@@jisyang8781 This is 2 years ago 'kid". You are responding to a person who doesn't in anyway hold his previous views.

[@jisyang8781]

@@DanielFahimi man grows up but character rarely changes. Hope you realize humility is a sign of maturity. And being humble allows you to improve. Wish you best.

[@DanielFahimi]

@@jisyang8781 "man grows up but character rarely changes." lol, nope! Citation needed. Where does it say one can't change his own character. " Hope you realize humility is a sign of maturity. And being humble allows you to improve. Wish you best." I acknowledge that. I also acknowledge that I was arrogant and foolish at the time I wrote that tripe.