The sixth Etude, in E flat minor, forms a pair with the fifth. The brightness of that piece – enhanced by the pentatonic sheen of playing on the black keys – is complemented here by the deep shade of chromatic sonorities. The moving two-part writing of the desperately sad melodies, played con molta espressione, seems to wander around quite aimlessly.Historians of harmony are wont to see the chromaticised sonorities of the E flat minor Etude as anticipating, or perhaps presaging, the harmony of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. The touchingly timorous ending, again Picardian, is preceded by the unexpected accentuation of a very distant key.Author: Mieczysław TomaszewskiA series of programmes entitled ‘Fryderyk Chopin's Complete Works’Polish Radio 2