How did Chopin play – vol. 11

In the third stage of the Chopin Competition, participants are required to perform a selected complete opus of mazurkas – their choice relatively often falls on Opus 33, written between 1836 and 1838. Chopin’s intriguing instructions regarding the nature and manner of performing two miniatures from this collection have survived. One of the composer’s most talented students, Princess Marcelina Czartoryska, spoke to Aleksander Michałowski about the third in the opus, the Mazurka in D major: ‘Despite her advanced years, Princess Czartoryska gave in to my pleas and played a few Mazurkas, among others the well-known Mazurka in D major. I was struck by the way she interpreted its main theme. At first, she played it in a brash, forthright way, with no subtlety of nuance. It was only towards the end of the piece, at the theme’s second appearance [bar 74 to the end], that she played it with a soft, caressing touch, utterly subtle and refined. When I asked her about this contrasting treatment, she replied that Chopin had taught it to her that way: in this piece he wanted to present the contrast between the “tavern” and the “salon”. That was why he wanted the same melody played so differently: at the beginning it was to evoke the popular atmosphere of the tavern, and, towards the end, the refinement of the salons…’

Whereas Wilhelm von Lenz made a very interesting note about the fourth mazurka, in the key of B minor: ‘This piece is a Ballade in all but name. Chopin himself taught it as such, stressing the narrative character of this highly developed piece, with its ravishing trio [B major: bars 129ff]. At the end a bell tolls a heavy bass carillon G–C–G–C – and the sudden arrival of the final chords sweeps away the cohort of ghosts, Chopin would say.’

Kamila Stępień-Kutera