Why Chopin’s Barcarolle is your favorite piece (ft. Garrick Ohlsson & Emanuel Ax)

[@philsonjr]

Heard Rubenstein play this on his final Chicago recital. Not a dry eye in the house. A once in a lifetime, I’ll never forget performance.

[@johnnyschuetten]

I unfortunately never heard Rubinstein live, but adored his Chopin since I grew up. I am so jealous you heard him on that opportunity, it must have been absolutely magic. ❤

[@maestroadam]

you are a very lucky person

[@carlklein3806]

I remember the concert and the broken piano strings replaced at intermission. Overwhelming concert. I can understand why Rubinstein was hard to record.

[@Highinsight7]

ohhh my gosh... the GREATEST pianist ever to live... and the greatest solo work for the piano ever written... all in once concert...

[@AntónioNahakBorges]

❤❤❤

[@fazergazer]

I have a story about Garrick. He came to Santa Fe, and performed a Chopin recital. He walked into stage and sat down at the piano, then turned to the audience and told us the reason he was dressed so informally was that the airline had lost his luggage! He then proceeded to perform the best Chopin recital I’d heard in years. ❤

[@antjon078]

At first I was like: "How can there only be 37 upvotes on content this amazing!" Then I checked how many views there were and realized that the video was released 30 minutes ago, and had about 240 views at the time xD

[@cerenaseawell5753]

A few years ago, in Dallas, Garrick Ohlsson played Beethoven's Fourth Piano concerto. During the slow Second movement, the huge Meyerson Hall entered another dimension - the audience went into quiet ecstasy, and time and space dissolved. That was a moment of pure magic elevating the human souls.

[@Richard.Atkinson]

Definitely my favorite Chopin work. Someday I’ll analyze it on my channel!

[@mduftube]

Oh hell yeah man, I absolutely love your videos! Please do!

[@KevinLiangP]

Loved the Rubinstein bit, was humbling to hear a great pianist speak so highly of Rubinstein.

[@saltburner2]

And the amazing thing he came to see his playing at this stage of his career as not really serious: things had come so easily to him he felt he had not worked hard enough to perfect his technique. So he took some time off just to practice intensively and then re-emerged as the mature artist. It takes a lot of courage and humility to make such a choice.

[@patrickvalentino600]

I met both of these artists at Tanglewood, wonderful musicians and honest, humble men! All striving for excellence begins with humility.

[@rosechen5978]

This IS my favorite piece by Chopin!!!! ❤❤❤❤❤

[@Jack-hy1zq]

I feel very privileged to have access to so much wonderful music at my fingertips.

[@Sveccha93]

It's been my favorite piece. Heard the Dinu Lipatti recording when I was 13 and I'll never forget it.

[@mduftube]

It’s so cool that you show the autograph in these videos whenever you can. Chopin had such beautiful handwriting that it’s a pleasure for its own sake.

[@RolandHuettmann]

I just love such inspirational discussions. It is another level of life.

[@quadricode]

What a great discussion of the opening. I always liked the opening to the barcarolle, but never thought too much of it. This really illuminated it.

[@jamescottone9882]

I have heard Pollini, Entremont, Uchida, Argerich, Goode and Radu Lupu play this live. All magic!!!

[@terranbricklin]

Live?! Oh my goodness you have a good life!

[@gil-evens]

Amazing! I heard Ivo Pogorelich play it last year, it was magical

[@saltburner2]

I'm too young to have heard Dinu Lipatti, but his recording was what first made me love this piece.

[@robkeeleycomposer]

It’s also worth pointing that it’s musically very rich without being incredibly difficult to play, at least by Chopin’s standard. One of his homages to Italian bel canto opera, but with counterpoint!!! I love these two great pianists’ down-to-earth honesty. They are the real thing.

[@Tristan-zt8tw]

Tonebase, I really enjoy your videos, especially these ones wher you speak with prominent musicians. I like hearing them talk about all the details of a piece!

[@espressonoob]

this really is chopin's best piece imo, sounds incredible on a fortepiano.

[@Intartdev]

The side by side and how vastly different they play and understand the music is such an important point for young, maturing musicians to see. This battle of understanding how to converse with the composers ideas to make it ideally personally.

[@fazergazer]

Agree totally. The barcarolle sums up so much of the soul of Chopin. I can see the barcarcolles so clearly when hearing this. I think of Spanish saudades, of the gondoliers. The duet of the singers flowing above the waters. I am in the boat, and also observing from afar. The distance is in space and in time. A timeless piece and yet a snippet of some experience of Chopin? ❤

[@Dodecatone]

I heard Ax play the Baracarolle in Sarasota about a year ago! It was an all-late-Chopin recital, and the Polonaise-Fantaisie and the Barcarolle brought the house down. It was also the first time I heard the Barcarolle, which has since grown to become perhaps my favorite Chopin piece as well, alongside the Ballades.

[@bobidou23]

The best piece in the world is either this or the Fourth Ballade, whichever I listened to last 😉

[@victormontielpiano]

Agree!

[@bernhardfbuttner5694]

No Berceuse?

[@beatlessteve1010]

Again what a beautiful piece I have the wonderful opportunity of hearing it for the first time right now

[@andresgunther]

For a Chopin buff whose favorite *contemporary* Chopin interpreter had been a student of one of the two featured pianists this was highly interesting. Thank you for this valuable content!

[@Chopin-Etudes-Cosplay]

Who is that favorite interpreter?

[@janadrienlim9318]

@@Chopin-Etudes-Cosplay I'm guessing Tiffany Poon.

[@janadrienlim9318]

Nice to see a fellow patron here!

[@AS-bl5qy]

Thank you for making me aware of the existence of this breathtaking piece.

[@alexhencinski3852]

Watching the last bit of this actually did a great job of selling me on Seymour Bernstein’s interpretation of the romanticists’ use of < and > markings as indicating rubato rather than dynamics. It’s always great seeing the intersections of analyses on this channel

[@urbanviii5103]

Also my favorite piece of Chopin's. What a loving presentation about what this piece is about and means.

[@susanhawkins3890]

Terrific intro for 2 fabulous pianists !!!!

[@CookieOutaSight]

It was magical to witness Mr. Ohlsson perform this piece last month and we are blessed to have access to such wonderful videos as these

[@krazdomino4882]

Indeed this piece is the best of Chopin

[@kzelmer]

It was also Nieztsche's favourite piece. Zimmerman version is the best I have ever heard but Mr. Ohlsson is amazing too. Great analysis as usual

[@PianoPsych]

I really enjoy the way my teacher, Roberto Poli, plays it. His interpretation is my favorite: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWrVqJ-CjJ14bbM&feature=shares

[@buddydog1956]

I've played this piece some 30 odd yrs ago...took me a/b 2.5yrs to get it - my favorite Chopin piece as well....Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, thus I love the renditions of Op.60 from Jorge Bolet, A.Rubinstein and Van Cliburn ~

[@JIM-ot4ws]

I've played it, my favorite piece ever.

[@erika6651]

I go back and forth between the Barcarolle and the Polonaise Fantasy as being my absolute favorite piano piece. They were both a part of my introduction to Chopin and are incomparable to anything else in his literature.

[@JIM-ot4ws]

The Bacarolle is my favorite, the Scherzzo and the Ballades amazing too! Look at the aria Vedro Con Mio Diletto by Vivaldi, it seems light and beautiful, but print out the sheet music and sing it, it is another story, it's those minor sounding chromatic shifts in the melody! Probably my second favorite piece of music. Another favorite is the 2nd movement of the Rach2.

[@tfpp1]

Barcarolle, Ballade no. 4, Sonata no. 3, Scherzo no. 4, Nocturne op. 62 no. 2 -- "late" Chopin is absolutely my favorite stuff to play.

[@ZKLofiTone]

Nocturne in C minor op 48 no 1?

[@maestroadam]

Late Chopin may be the highest expression of the classical piano!

[@tfpp1]

@@ZKLofiTone Ok, that one too. I guess it depends on when one starts counting works as "late". But yes, absolutely that nocturne could qualify.

[@PMA65537]

@@maestroadam If you forget Mozart, Scott Joplin, Liszt and Chico Marx.

[@dennischiapello3879]

I haven't listened to the third sonata, but the others you mention, yes, I love those above most other Chopin. In fact, I'm often tempted to put the fourth Ballade above the Barcarolle. Somehow, though, it doesn't seem fair. The Ballade is a dramatic, weighty work, but the Barcarolle makes of its essentially lyric nature something utterly magical. The harmonic language is amazingly subtle. When I would practice it, I especially noticed the constantly shifting harmony in the part of the coda that follows the climatic forte passage. I think the Barcarolle is a miracle.

[@truBador2]

I am so happy to have this video to watch. Awesome!

[@republiccooper]

This is a nice video. Thank you Ben. We enjoy your work.

[@JS-ln4ns]

My favorite performance is Argerich at the Chopin Competition. She adds a sudden unwritten fortissimo at the climax which still gives me goosebumps.

[@ep4169]

Many years ago I heard an all-Chopin recital and was surprised to find that the Barcarolle was my favorite piece of the night. Later I realized that it really was my favorite Chopin piece. Too bad this video doesn't get to the ending, which is perfect.

[@jimmynguyen227]

Ben with the lego boat, YES LOL

[@recoveringscot3587]

Some years ago actor Christopher Reeve was interviewed on British television (unfortunately I can't remember the year (or the channel) but it was probably around the time of the 'Superman' movie). In the interview it was disclosed that Reeve played the piano, and he demonstrated this by giving a fairly good complete performance of the Barcarolle by memory. I wonder if the programme still exists on film somewhere, as I'd rather like to see it again. It revealed a thoughtful, intelligent, cultured side to his personality, which can also be seen in his acting.

[@67daltonknox]

I think the Rubinstein 1928 recording is peerless. Even though he went on to rerecord it several times, there was a magic in the first that neither he, nor any other recording that I have heard, has equaled.

[@carlosurbanejasilva1881]

I'm not sure I would say it is my favourite piece in the world but to me, the piano never sounded more beautiful than in Chopin's Barcarolle.

[@brewn0te]

Thank you for this. I admittedly was only familiar with the nocturnes and some others that can be found on compilations. Beautiful music.

[@nancyharris7020]

Excellent. Love the Plamobil scenes too

[@jonathan130]

I didnt really think about this piece or like it until I listened to it 3 times, now i actually really like it.

[@cantkeepitin]

This piece is hypnotic. The Lipatti version is wonderful.

[@saltburner2]

The accompaniment to Benjamin Godard's Berceuse de Jocelyn uses many of the same chords and harmonies and chord progressions. Presumably he was influence by Chopin Barcarolle, He was born in the year Chopin died.

[@PaulHirsh]

My favourite piece in the world too

[@dreuvasdevil9395]

great video

[@RModillo]

Wonderful music. A favorite recording ever-- Dinu Lipatti of this piece!

[@Hjominbonrun]

Garrick Ohlsson has the best way of explaining. Mustn't be 'solid and factual', that was probably the best description of lifeless playing I have heard. Is he a professor? Cos the world could benefit from his explanatory powers.

[@serwoolsley]

the enthusiasm of emanuel is amazing to see

[@jpdj2715]

The reference to boats and water - fine, implied in the title barcarolle. The reference to an asymmetric gondola during Chopin's life is wrong. The asymmetry was only introduced in the end of the 19th century - almost 1900. The flat bottomed gondola is already referenced before 1100, but until ~1900 these boats had a symmetrical shape when seen from above. These had to be rowed, navigated, by two oarsmen. One in the front, one in the back. The asymmetry allowed a single oarsman on the back of the gondola and this made the cost of transportation cheaper. You may see a few of the symmetric gondole still in Venice, but that is rare. Compare the asymmetry with the cross section of an aeroplane wing that gives lift. After the French Revolution, and the industrial revolution happening on the continent, labour in Europe became more expensive. Feudal nobility generally lost their wealth. And two oarsmen got too expensive.

[@victormontielpiano]

My favorite Chopin piece ❤️I use the middle pedal at the beggining to keep the bass during all the intro

[@Robinywhoo]

my teacher told me about this channel, i hope i like it

[@andre.vaz.pereira]

"Barcaruola: la notte è bella". In 1848 Chopin played the Barcarolle twice. The première was in Salon Pleyel (16 February) and in the second performance in September 27th of 1848 (at Merchant's Hall) the concert program anounced the piece in italian as "Barcaroula: 'la notte è Bella'" (trans. 'Barcaroula: The night is beautiful'). Isn't that interesting? It's not an editor thing, it's a Chopin's concert program!! Why isn't this information more widely spread? In the première Charle Hallé wrote about Chopin's performance: "He played the latter part of his Barcarolle, from the point where it demands the utmost energy, in the opposite style, pianissimo, but with such wonderful nuances that one remained in doubt if this new reading were not preferable to the accustomed one" (Hallé 1848) So as Emanuel Ax claims (11:26) "What to enphasise when?" is just a path with several possibilities and Chopin himself didn't write "in stone" everything that is on the manuscript, he kept changing himself the possibilities of performance. Sorry to disagree with Garrick but at 10:07 what Chopin writes is a ritardando (with an hairpin towards diminuendo) and not a diminuendo. At the end of the phrase there is an accelerando and not a crescendo also. Garrick needs to see more videos of Seymore Bernstein about hairpins. Cotot's version does it very beautifuly. Even Rubinstein's version (7:42) does it in a very subtle way (speacially the accelerando). Check my Art Script of the Barcarolle: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnjaiaSEbtZjbLs&ab_channel=Andr%C3%A9VazPereira Keep up the videos!

[@PianoPsych]

Thank you for this lovely video!

[@jerome2874]

As Seymour Bernstein said, "in the romantic tradition, hairpins no longer refer to dynamics, but rather to tempo fluctuation." Hairpins doesn't mean crescendo but rubato. It changes absolutely everything! So at 10:30, it is not a crescendo, but a rubato like Garrick did in the first version of this passage, not the second one.

[@bifeldman]

I once gave the score of the Barcarolle to a talented young pianist who had just graduated from the Prep. I said to his father that if the entirety of piano music consisted only of this one piece, music would still be the greatest of the arts. There is no perfect performance of this piece. Only God in Heaven gets to hear that.

[@GUILLOM]

@@BRNRDNCK no

[@BRNRDNCK]

@@GUILLOM Not counting works with several movements like St. Matthews Passion, can you name a more sublime piece of music?

[@GUILLOM]

@@BRNRDNCK I can't, because it would be just my opinion

[@BRNRDNCK]

@@GUILLOM If you think it’s all just opinions then why did you tell me no?

[@GUILLOM]

@@BRNRDNCK because it's just your opinion

[@AlbertoSegovia.]

Yes, Mr. Ax, that’s difficult to do when played in this absurd tempo, in which everyone else also plays it in, including Mr. Ohlsson. Supposedly Gondolas should be evoked for this piece, so it is ad nauseam said, but the rowing motions only come out if one plays the eighth notes around 80 bpm. Look up the performance by Anthony de Bonaventura to see what this piece should really sound like. Everyone just keeps ignoring the overwhelming evidence that shows that Chopin and many of his contemporaries played more slowly than we love to impose to. Music is commonsensical, it is not some obscure thing that is so difficult to manifest! In these tempi, no one can enjoy the watery reverie and the dolce sfogato! Let’s try to understand what those words mean… Sorry for my rudeness. I hope I make a point.

[@gerardbedecarter]

Most interesting!

[@alexbrk1157]

As an unconditional Chopin fan, and having listened every bit of his late works, I still don’t know why the Barcarolle doesn’t come close to move me like his other works do. And I desperately want to know why!!!!

[@petroglyph888mcgregor2]

I feel the same way about most of Chopin's First Ballade.

[@donw3861]

It's music and there is no why.

[@marcusm319]

I’m the same. So grateful to this video though for attempting to educate me!

[@JaapFeitsma-qi8ct]

Great things are always small.

[@MatheusFedrigo]

@tonebase Piano at 01:44 Ohlsson says "1968 Paderewski Edition" but it was wrongly subtitled as "1968 Peters Edition"

[@_Francis]

I love Chopin and I know every last note he wrote by heart. I love the Barcarolle of course, I really do, but it's not my favorite piece, far from it. Scherzo 1, Ballade 1 & Nocturne 13 for instance have a much much deeper effect on me

[@potatopotato0715]

I enjoy ballade 1 and noc 13, but can’t seem to get into the first scherzo. What makes it special?

[@_Francis]

​@@potatopotato0715 If the depth of this work seems inaccessible, perhaps start with pieces of less dramatic magnitude such as the Valses, and the Mazurkas and the Preludes, to then listen to all the Nocturnes, the Polonaises .. before the Ballades and the Scherzi. The Scherzo 1 is strikingly brilliant and dramatic in intensity. Already the first 2 chords puzzled at the time by their audacity, their violence. Then it's a rhythmic masterpiece as you'll see in the opening pattern, and an anguished surge which plunges towards a great sadness, between bars 45 and 64, it's fascinating how we go from such a burst of flamboyant passion to such nostalgic desolation in such a short time. There is also the charm of the central episode, lulling and melancholic… the passionate coda...

[@jonathangilmore3193]

IMO, there is no better - more poetic, more rhapsodic, more foundational - rendition of Chopin’s Bacarolle than that recorded by Dinu Lipatti before his death in 1950. Listen to, and enjoy it.

[@actualkiwi]

"Every time I learn a piece of music, he learns the complete works of that composer..." We all got a friend like that right? 😂 He's downplaying his ability for a jest, but Emanuel is a fantastic musician and great person in his own right - we don't have to be "the best".

[@susanhawkins3890]

Yes… a tone picture” !!!

[@MrTedflick]

I watched this whole video.

[@eddydelrio1303]

I was going to say that I find it a legitimate consideration to use the Sostenuto pedal to capture the opening C# bass, and hold for the entire dominant pedal, and then realized that (I think) Rubinstein does so on the Red Seal RCA Victor recording. kzbin.info/www/bejne/p2rYnnV7Z6yhbbM

[@andream.464]

Dinu Lipatti still owns it:)

[@rravvia]

Chopin's best barcarolle is his 4th Ballade.

[@buddydog1956]

Ya mixing 'apples & oranges' there, buddy ~

[@harrylampiris2554]

Or the best ballade is the barcarolle

[@1389Chopin]

Ive 'played' this piece - not very well. It is interesting to see how great keyboard master hear and interpret and compare to our own. An aside - yea chopin 'falls under the hands nicely' but having big hands for this piece is an advantage. I do not have big hands.

[@Tristan-zt8tw]

It’s also similar to his Polonaise-Fantasy isn’t it? Very nice

[@josephciolino2865]

A masterpiece no doubt. Not Chopin's greatest however.

[@GUILLOM]

What?

[@josephciolino2865]

@@GUILLOM NOT CHOPIN'S GREATEST. Did you hear THAT?

[@GUILLOM]

@@josephciolino2865 No, I didn't hear it. I did read it tho. Why do you believe it's not his greatest?

[@josephciolino2865]

@@GUILLOM Because the F-minor Fantasy is his greatest.

[@GUILLOM]

@@josephciolino2865 isn't that just your favourite piece?

[@Nunofurdambiznez]

Garrick O. Is the only person I've EVER heard that can make a Yamaha piano produce a wonderful sound, otherwise, I can't stand the tone/sound of a Yamaha!

[@billyboyblue1539]

Notating must have been arduous for composers and the like in the period - WE today with all the tech probably could not have the patience--thank God for the genius of past

[@philosophicallyspeaking6463]

Chopin's most Lisztian work! Chopin meets, and shakes hands with Liszt. This is Chopin channeling Liszt (who did go to Venice) in more than just programme. The work is more far ranging and farsighted than Chopin's intentionally intimate 'miniatures'. The work is 'thick' with Lisztian vision unto the horizon, and doesn't overall sound like Chopin despite its recourse to obtuse codas and decoration with extraneous trills (where Liszt would allow a silence) and would be quite at home anywhere in the Annees de Pelerinage. I think this occult quality of this work is why so many Chopin enthusiasts, who dislike Liszt on principle, allow themself to like this work. It has less to do with its persistent Chopinesque elements, and more to do with unaccounted Lisztian assets. Conversely, many Chopin enthusiasts 'don't' like this piece but aren't sure why. Hear it instead as LIszt, and it makes more sense, until such a time when you no longer need the crutch of this device to mediate your dispute between the two.

[@Opoczynski]

I disagree completely. This Chopin's most Chpinesque work. Liszt doesn't even come close to the quality of this piece.

[@waynepetty1727]

"Rubinstein spielt Chopins Barcarolle mit restloser Vollendung" ("Rubinstein plays Chopin's Barcarolle to utter perfection") -- Heinrich Schenker

[@ivanbeshkov1718]

Chopin and Schumann seem to owe a lot to John Field (1782-1837)

[@Marklar3]

I will permit Garrick to say that it's his favorite piece, but it doesn't have to be mine, as the editor/uploader suggests.

[@Marklar3]

And by Garrick's own comments in this video, I think he would agree. I would have been happier to click on this video if it were titled "Why Chopin’s Barcarolle is Garrick Ohlsson's favorite piece".

[@Rasenschneider]

It's just a matter of taste

[@rachmusic9873]

Awesome video as always! also, are we still getting a part 2 to the Yunchan Lim Tracendental Études breakdown?

[@ciararespect4296]

Didn't Chopin himself say he wss proud of the composition?

[@eduardosato]

Rebecca Penneys uses tonal pedal in order to maintain initial c# and mix it with the upper voices. I love her version, so imginative and different. Unlike Ohlsson´s so typical and predictible...

[@Zeropadd]

💜💙🖤🖤🤎💛

[@tonyscully4550]

Watched this video, and listened to several interpretations of this work. As a musician, former teacher, and lifelong fan of Chopin I am so sorry to say this work just does not enchant me at all.

[@joeyblogsy]

Definitely not my favourite Chopin work lol

[@josephciolino2865]

Proving, of course, that the only thing worse than listening to critics discuss great music is hearing great musicians discuss music.

[@GUILLOM]

Why is this a bad thing?

[@josephciolino2865]

@@GUILLOM Oh, come on. Just listen to this claptrap. Do you need me to point out specific examples? I will.

[@GUILLOM]

@@josephciolino2865 please proceed

[@josephciolino2865]

@@GUILLOM Oh God. That means I have to watch it again....ok... please hold....

[@josephciolino2865]

@@GUILLOM ok... at the very beginning they both point to the "contrapuntal" nature of the opening, which of course has been pointed out by critics and musical analysts for a hundred years (probably longer) and is not truly counterpoint or contrapuntal at all. This is a type of accompaniment appears many times in Chopin. It is not unique to this piece.The rest is just HIGHLY subjective examples of how it should be played. There is no insight that reveals Chopin's genius. Pointing out how Chopin begins the beginning of phrases on the second beat....No, sorry, the first beat is just as important and is part of the phrase, Garrick. BTW, i LOVE the way he plays. I have admired Maestro Ohlsson since I first saw and heard him play in the early 1970's at my college. He should stick to performance. I could go on.

[@wesmlr]

Can you please upload some content on lesser known composers, especially stuff by not-white people?

[@wesmlr]

@@dejuren1367 it’s not racist to advocate for classical music to be more racially inclusive

[@bashirabdel-fattah9499]

​@dejuren Bro, there have been plenty of non-white composers from the classical era (and before) through to the modern day, and neither was Europe itself as ethnically homogeneous as you seem to think it was. The fact that you think Wesley's request was so ridiculous really proves his point, that these composers need more widespread exposure.

[@bashirabdel-fattah9499]

@dejuren Just one? Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges is a well-known black composer from the classical era, for instance.

[@bashirabdel-fattah9499]

@dejuren Even on a structural level, non-white people had an important role in the development of western musical practices. Europe has always had significant contact with the Arab world and North Africa throughout history (even during the relatively insular Middle Ages), for instance, and that cultural exchange included the introduction of many important instruments to Europe (such the drum family and as the predecessors to the violin, oboe, guitar, and piano). Musical practices (and architecture, cuisine, medicine, etc.) in Spain and Portugal were especially strongly influenced by Arab culture, seeing as Muslims had controlled parts of the Iberian Peninsula for 800 years.

[@bashirabdel-fattah9499]

@dejuren Well-known at the time in France, and also increasing well-known today as an example of an under-recognized composer of color. They even made a movie about him last year (titled 'Chevalier').

[@tomislavblazevic2742]

If only it hadn't been written in this utterly illegible monstrosity of F-sharp major key... He could have put it into F or G-major, saved us all a lot of bother, while sounding absolutely the same.

[@paulenhelenjonsthovel9311]

If you say that you're obviously not knowing what you are talking about, sorry.

[@tomislavblazevic2742]

@@paulenhelenjonsthovel9311 What, the fact that F-sharp major is particularly problematic for sight reading? I've been playing the piano for 27 years, should I pretend that F-sharp major is easy to read and think in? Also, I absolutely stand behind the other thing I said, G-major or F-major would have been preferable, for reasons of clarity. And especially since back in Chopin's day tuning standards were different and mostly lower than 440 Hz of today. So you can't really claim that he'd envisaged this piece in F-sharp as we hear/play it today.

[@willyj3321]

I think this piece sounds best in F# major.

[@tomislavblazevic2742]

@@willyj3321 Sure, but at what cost :D

[@johnphilipps1810]

It sounds beautiful in f sharp,I couldn't imagine it any other way. And the trills and double trills would be much more problematic in a key without all the sharps. Chopin knew what he was doing, and if you have a hard time with f sharp then you must not be very good

[@brettowen7174]

Over analysed over blogged and just play what Chopin wrote.

[@Manx123]

Okay. I've never cared for the Barcarolle, and this explanation doesn't convince me otherwise. There is little rhythmic variation in this piece, little diversity in its sections, little contrast, little varieties in the textures, (just a bunch of chords throughout), little variety in dynamics, etc., compared to every other large-scale work by Chopin, including his ballades, his longer polonaises, his fantasies, etc.