F. Chopin - Nocturne in F minor Op. 55 no. 1 - analysis - Greg Niemczuk's lecture

[@jc9552]

I "thought" I knew Chopins work till I found your videos. Your interpretations and analysis make me see und understand his work so much better. Your videos are true gems! ❤

[@creativivian7528]

here's my weird perception: everything perceived as major and cheerful creeps me out - while everything in minor, sad, and anguish... I find it soothing, genuine and peaceful

[@gregniemczuk]

Great description!

[@Myself-anonymously]

​ @gregniemczuk_official @Creativivian The second part is the same for me. Everything in minor, when played well, I find genuinely soothing and peaceful. The first part is where my experience differs. Cheerful music, in major keys, energizes me. (when it is a melody I am fond of, or if I had heard it as a young child)

[@LiliVG]

Beautiful interpretation that has helped me literally submerge myself in this stunning nocturne that I have heard so many times played by so many pianists. The technique necessary to play this nocturne is a given but what is just as imperative is the sensitivity to feel and be able to transmit the intense, overwhelming sadness that turned Chopin’s life upside down. His sadness pulsates through every bar. Thank you so much for adding another layer to this stunningly beautiful piece with your analysis.

[@davidkoffman]

Learning this piece at the moment and keep coming back to your video. It truly is medicine for the soul.

[@ramonaquileshernandezbernal]

A beautiful nocturne. Chopin, a great composer.

[@willhirst-x4x]

Lovely nocturne played by a tremendous pianist and an incredible analysis. Thank you so much.

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you very much!

[@dobbydoughnuts9941]

Incredible video man - loved listening to this. My teacher just handed me this nocturne so I’m doing some research on it to fuel my interpretation. Loved this video - Thankyou :)

[@gregniemczuk]

Wonderful!!!

[@joannawronska4100]

SO WONDERFUL AS ALWAYS AND IMPORTANT!!!!! Thank you for one of my favourite Chopin's Nocturnes in an excellent rendition and for this analysis/tutorial, your great video will be helpful for many pianists, again my best regards, have a nice happy weekend. Joanna

[@de4d_tv543]

earlier this week i started going to a clinic for my depression and i had to learn this specific song, or at least part a, for a movie i played a part in. i didnt understand at that time but this peace has always stuck with me. i like the way you said "to feel understood". and i think i now understand better why this piece hits me so hard. i havent cried for over 10 years, but now i am starting to be able to acknowledge my emotions. i have hope, and i want my life to end in a major key.

[@de4d_tv543]

are there any specific performances / interpretations you could recommend to me?

[@gregniemczuk]

spotify.link/xt9UeoEoxDb ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you for this comment... Chopin's music is always very comforting and close to our hearts.....

[@scottfoster3643]

Great analysis & playing and of course amazing piece of music. Absolute perfection!

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you so much!

[@alinevalade3964]

Hello Grzegorz, I am learning this magnificence Chopin Nocturne. I love hearing you perform it. Watching your video helps me understantd the deep meaning of this nocturne. I am so deeply touched by this music that tears isntantly come to my eyes. I hope one day to have enough sensitivity to interpret this nocturne as movingly as you do. Thank you for this great moment.

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you so much! Those who search will find! You will!!! Good luck! Greg Niemczuk

[@gregorymiller2977]

Hello, Greg. I appreciate you posting this video. I learned so much from your video. I am re-learning this piece and you have educated me, which i will apply to my technique and interpretation. Thank you.

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you dear Gregory!

[@owo3125]

Thank you soo much for this video!! I just started learning this nocturne but everytime I played it I felt that something was missing. When watching your video i realized that you can't play if you don't know what you're playing. This gave a twist to all I think about this piece and I'm very gratefull. After all, Chopin has always been one of my biggest ambitiuos and, thouht I'm a little new at this, I hope I can be better and your video has been very helpfull. Thank you so much again and please keep it going ❤

[@gregniemczuk]

Hello, thank you for these words! I'm so happy it's helpful for other musicians! Good luck and always stay inspired! Hugs from Poland

[@musthabe_]

What a fantastic analysis. As a beginner I am considering starting to learn this piece and your backstory and interpretation will give me a lot to think about while learning it. As someone who has struggled with depression and anxiety for a lot of my life, part B to me definitely feels like a panic attack, which is complete chaos and not knowing what to do - all you can think about is that you want this to stop, you want to escape the attack. And then the panic attack ends and you feel relieved to go back to part A. But having felt the worst feelings in your life during the panic attack, afterwards you feel a deep appreciation and inspiration and motivation to be outside of it. Without having experienced the dark and negative, you cannot appreciate the light and positive as much. This is what the piece feels like to me.

[@teardrop720]

Thank you! I have been wondering what events were happening to Chopin when he wrote this piece. It is so beautiful and touching, especially bar 77 .. the molto legato e stretto ... so heart rending and anguished. Thank you again for giving us this life perspective of the one and only Chopin

[@StoicPawn]

Incredible lecture. I've loved this piece for many years, and learning to play it was my project at the beginning of Covid, but I feel that I've never fully understood it until now.

[@gregniemczuk]

So happy to hear that!!!!

[@makoch95]

Thank you so much. I started playing the piano one year ago and after watching your analysis I already learned op. 9 no. 1, so now i can’t wait to lern this emotional piece. thank you so much for introducing us to this deep emotion behind the piece

[@gregniemczuk]

Wonderful!!! I'm so happy that it's so helpful!

[@thewordbtrue2461]

Hi , I played the 1st page for my sister. Her comment," oh that's just very sad. It sounds sad" 😂 I told her THANK YOU!! I'm doing a good job☺️

[@gregniemczuk]

Bravo!

[@khalilcanady2012]

Beautiful.. bella!!! I " dig' this piece!!! 💐🔥💐

[@mariyakoshkina3941]

I returned to your wonderful video because it is unique for the feeling and imagination! This is so important! Without imagining the music you never be real musician,creator,not just a student! Thank you again!!!

[@gregniemczuk]

Yes!!! That's exactly true!

[@ClaraC-l9f]

Thank you for this wonderful video, it's incredible. I cry every time I listen to it because it touches my soul so deeply.

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you so much!!!

[@TuyetNguyen-ni3nb]

Wonderful!!! Chopin and you!!!❤❤❤, thank you

[@cliveparaschis]

Very moving lecture - the major final chord makes It even sadder

[@pyrokinetikrlz]

I am learning this masterpiece. Thanks for the insight

[@ΜιλτιάδηςΒιτσικουνάκης]

Maestro Niemczuk, I wish i had earlier the chance to enter the Chopin universe in the magic way you suggest to us !!! Your detailed approach reveals not only a solid conception of facts associated with Chopin's life, but also a thorough grasp of the most refined scents emerging from controversies concluded by blurred and ambiguous hope to come true, only through religious Faith ... Pure romanticism at its peak !!! Thank you so much !!!

[@gregniemczuk]

You're invited to watch all my lectures. Thank you for being here! And for all your comments.

[@TheOneRaf]

Thank you very much for this Grzegorz!

[@gregniemczuk]

You're welcome! Thank you for the comment

[@shayanpazhandi1799]

Hello sir. I am currently trying to learn and finish this piece and I'm currently working on the last section ( part D) . I have to tell you that this analysis and these words you use to describe the whole poetic sense are absolutely wonderfully amazing (eventhough sometimes interpreted feelings might be different). Also, I have to add that this vide helped me TREMENDOUSLY. So I want to thank you for your time and your work and your love to spread the knowledge, specially since you are Polish yourself and you can also express the cultural matters and history. Thank you very much.

[@gregniemczuk]

And I want to thank you for your effort to write such a beautiful comment. It's the best reward for me! Knowing that it's inspiring for someone else... Good luck!

[@shayanpazhandi1799]

@@gregniemczuk It truly is, and it truly has inspired me.

[@PedroStreicher]

One of my favourites, just learned 2 months ago.

[@joannawronska4100]

WONDERFUL, good luck, greetings!

[@PedroStreicher]

@@joannawronska4100 thanks!!!!

[@lucascury2003]

um brasileiro por aqui?

[@PedroStreicher]

@@lucascury2003 raro, mas existe hahaha

[@brianlimachi7073]

Un aporte tan importante Maestro, para Bach el Fa Mayor tiene una importancia muy relevante y eso lo sabia muy bien Chopin al concluir, cuando los intervalos de segunda en fa menor significaban dolor en el Fa Mayor es como redimirse de los pecados usando el intervalo de segunda mayor y menor para crear ese simbolo de lo eterno y divino que necesitaba oir Nuestro amado Chopin.

[@gregniemczuk]

Muchas gracias por su comentario!

[@Careless932]

Your channel is a treasure. I am a big fan of Chopin and I play lots of works from him too. Unfortunatelly I have a small pair of hand, that makes the understanding of the music is extremely important. I am so happy that I found your channel. Thank you so much!❤

[@gregniemczuk]

Welcome to my musical world!!!

[@Careless932]

@@gregniemczuk You got my tears when you explained how he ended this piece!! Thank you.

[@nigelwillson6096]

I love listening to Chopin's Nocturnes, Etudes, Ballades, Preludes and Waltzes. He was a musical genius. Music is subject to personal interpretation. When I play this particular Nocturne in F minor Op. 55, No. 1, I do so slightly faster, accelerando, which unfortunately increases the level of difficulty, particularly for my exceptionally short fingers. I had the audacity to make a youtube video of myself playing this nocturne, check it out. Nigel Willson - Nocturne No. 15 in F minor Op. 55, No 1 by F. Chopin. I confess, it gets a little messy at times, ( but is certainly not sad nor depressing ) probably because I am a cabinet maker, not a professional musician. As such, I don't have the opportunity to play the piano as often as I'd like. However, I agree that a slower tempo would have improved the performance, in so doing, eliminating the "messy" parts.

[@saulgoodman9956]

Thank you again, And also thank chopin for the happy endings 😅 , they never get old.

[@beatlessteve1010]

very good thoughts on feeling the sadness before you play ....i first heard this piece played by Horowitz and I believe he had the sensitivity you are talking about..I would like to add , that your articulation verbally is absolutely spot on and right in line with what comes to my mind and heart

[@alexelproo]

This was a lovely analysis to watch, thanks for uploading 😁

[@gregniemczuk]

Thanks!

[@jonathanteller6550]

Most people when they feel sad try to run away from this feeling. Chopin however must have turned and faced his sadness, experiencing it directly. How can one draw upon the inspiration to compose such sad music if one tries to run from the sadness? By putting this sad emotion to music, he is transforming it into understanding. I am most attracted to sad music, and yet I don't feel at all bad when listening to it. I feel that I'm connecting to something real.

[@gregniemczuk]

Yes, that's how it is! Schubert and Tchaikovsky the same!

[@esraokan]

i heard this 2 days ago during the program of ice skater Ksenia Snitsya and i loved it, and i have began to study.

[@gregniemczuk]

Fantastic!!! Thanks for watching my video!

[@mariyakoshkina3941]

Wonderful!Very deep and emotional!!! At the same time very professional!!! Thank you a lot!!!

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you!

[@allaneby6559]

Vladimir Horowitz usually included this piece. I learned it in 1959, still play it. Very emotional piece for sure. I think romantic music has a melancholy aspect, especially Chopin. Thanks for the lecture.

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you! I like Horowitz very much !

[@allaneby6559]

I liked your lecture on the Chopin Etude op 10 #1. I have very large hands and still find it a challenge. Relaxing is a good tip for sure. It creates a nicer tone. Thanks

[@derclops]

Fantastic explanation, thank you! Pure delight to watch and listen!!!

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you!!!

[@bloodherz9011]

I love this piece, it'd help me a lot! Thanks!

[@Taha-hu5bu]

Sublime!. Thanks a million!

[@justofernandez1977]

Thank you so much❤❤

[@zoemiaoqsy]

Incredibly helpful

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you so much!!!

[@jojolai9677]

thank you very much

[@greenmusic4787]

I have a question. But first. Thank you so much for the analysis! It is really interesting to here your thoughts and interpretation. You play beautifully. Now the question. In the bar where the base note melody starts eith the G flat or sol bmol, the sheet music says to omit the pedal. Is it permitted? I find it loses the flow and beauty without the pedal. The nexy part after has pedal which I find disrupts the flow.

[@gregniemczuk]

Hi! Thank you! Well, none professional pianist in the world follows strictly the pedal marks in Chopin's music. We look at it but we have to always decide ourselves, because Chopin had completely different pianos. So it's a very complicated topic but to make it short - it must be CLEAN (no mixing harmonies) but you can use it wherever you feel it sounds better for you.

[@tagquasar8791]

Dear Greg, thank you for this inspirational lesson and explanation of this piece which ive been working on for some time now. Even when the terrible news of the russian madness in the Ukraine is unfolding i force myself to try to find inspiration in playing the piano and your passion is infectious, no pun intended ;-). Im having trouble with the last part, the "almost like going to heaven" part because it really is a bit beyond my skills at the moment. I wonder though if for the right hand the rotation method is best to use t get the soft touch and also, im using edition Peters for this, the pedalling looks hard as well as the stachiatto left hand notes, how should it approach these? Thanks again

[@gregniemczuk]

It's hard to explain here... I'd have to listen to you to help you with that. Even hearing your video recording of that part would help me with giving you good advice

[@xevivr]

Beside being Minor it's really brings peace loved your performance as always!

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you!!

[@xevivr]

​@@gregniemczuk I started to practicing this piece and watching some interpretation, your performance is really touching, slow and one of the thing you maintained real tonality , stands top in my list ! Wish I would play same as your performance 😊

[@Phaseish]

awesome man thanks for the emotion!

[@gregniemczuk]

Thanks!

[@maddalenamaglione3914]

Bravissimo

[@MegaMech]

7:30 ish. If this is Chopin's first teacher, it's not that he was a bad teacher it's that he was a violin teacher. It's quite possible he was a fine enough for beginner keyboard and up.

[@gregniemczuk]

Absolutely true but Chopin loved him so much!

[@saulgoodman9956]

Thanks ❤

[@gregniemczuk]

Thank you!!!

[@gregniemczuk]

Melodia "Rozkwitały pąki białych róż", którą słychać w tym Nokturnie, powstała w roku 1918, więc to autor tej melodii być może inspirował się Chopinem!

[@brianlimachi7073]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/kGXFhqGagLySbcU Creo que encontre el link. Al oirlo tiene una relacion emocional con las marchas funebres (Bolero de caballeria) de mi país.

[@gregniemczuk]

@@brianlimachi7073 gracias!

[@enzovasconcelos2406]

Consider to do an analysis of op 55 no 2 too :P

[@gregniemczuk]

Of course, it will be published tonight! And I'm very proud of this episode!

[@中島百合子-g6o]

it's famous nocturne but I can't have sympathize. Like the funeral march, the present feeling just does it. Thank you for wonderful analysis.

[@ВыйдиВон-д2у]

Почему-то именно этот ноктюрн никогда не казался мне грустным. Задумчивым, меланхоличным, но нифига не трагичным.

[@nickpelov]

Guys pls help. I watched the best performance of Chopin"s 55 1 in youtube by a young lady. I added it to favorites and ... now it's gone. Can someone tell me her name, please!

[@nickpelov]

The video is back - it's Virna Kljaković. Sorry about asking here. I watched the analysis - The picture you painted was so intensive. Thumbs up!

[@annazochowska4477]

Będę 😊

[@cyc0313]

I can't really find the Op 55 no 2 video are you planning on posting it as well?

[@gregniemczuk]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIC0kox3nqahrNksi=hx3j-FSmeB5w6_8D

[@cyc0313]

@@gregniemczuk Cheers I don't know if it's just me but the title shows op 48 no 2 rather than op 55

[@ssmith9745]

Very approachable analysis and beautiful demonstrations. Too bad that the auto-subtitles don't do justice to your words, giving "theme in bass" as "team in base", "opus" as "oppose", etc.

[@gregniemczuk]

Thanks for the comment! I will take an effort to improve them manually

[@universe-9099]

Hello, dear colleague. It would be great if you had Persian subtitles in your videos

[@gregniemczuk]

I have in some. I'll try to add them here now

[@gregniemczuk]

DONE!

[@universe-9099]

@@gregniemczuk Thank you very much for your kindness🌹🙏

[@gregniemczuk]

@@universe-9099 always welcome!

[@universe-9099]

I would be grateful if you put Persian subtitles for Nocturne op. 9 no. I

[@ricardoromeromartinez8656]

Spanish please😥😥🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@erikmkrtchyan4926]

hysterical performance. what kind of depression are we talking about? this is a rather bright work, it is a search, with a bright solution at the end!!!

[@gregniemczuk]

Do you know Chopin's biography?....

[@erikmkrtchyan4926]

@@gregniemczuk Of course, but we can’t judge everything from the point of view of his biography, he also had good days and not very good ones in his life. I've watched a few of your videos, you're a pretty good pianist, I'm not a pianist myself, I'm a violinist, but I play quite a few of Chopin's piano pieces, including this nocturne. After all, it is impossible to evaluate such a beautiful work so unambiguously. Whom I listen to it performed by Rubinstein, it is not about depression at all. How you approach the instrument is how it will sound!!!

[@SuperWimsky]

Wow...extensive theorethic explanations. But the playing is not impressing and too much pedal at many occasions.

[@gregniemczuk]

Thanks for the comment. Compare here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l6Tbm4x3maaqaaMsi=t5IkB3c3vB-C9BOQ , maybe you'll like it better.