Composed in 1830, Chopin dedicated this work to his older sister Ludwika Chopin, with the statement: “To my sister Ludwika as an exercise before beginning the study of my second Concerto”.
Composed in 1841, Chopin once noted that the middle section was like a recitative and should be played as if “a tyrant commands, and the other asks for mercy.”
Composed in 1836, the piece occasionally has been featured in popular culture, such as in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me.
i G minor, ii C major, iii A flat major, iv B flat minor
The Op. 24 mazurkas by Frédéric Chopin were published in 1836, when the composer was 26 years old.
Composed in 1838-39, Op. 41 is dedicated to Chopin’s friend Stefan Witwicki, a minor poet, ten of whose poems Chopin set to music as songs.
Mazurka in B major, Op. 63, No. 1
Mazurka in F minor, Op. 63, No. 2
Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 63, No. 3
Composed in 1846. Op. 63 was Chopin’s last set of mazurkas published during his lifetime. They demonstrate the composer’s “late” style and may suggest a maturity of his emotional approach to the mazurka as a musical form.
The Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 is a ballade for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin. Completed in 1835, it is one of Chopin’s greatest and most popular works. The ballade dates to sketches Chopin made in 1831, during his eight-month stay in Vienna. It was completed in 1835 after his move to Paris, where he dedicated it to Baron Nathaniel von Stockhausen, the Hanoverian ambassador to France.
This was composed in 1829 at the age of 19. Although it was published posthumously in 1855 by his friend Julian Fontana, together with the Waltz Op. 69, No. 1. The piece is largely melancholic with three different sections and melodies which changes to B major and again reverts to the original theme. It is one of several works that the composer hoped would be burnt upon his death.
The Waltz in C♯ minor is a piano waltz composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1847, the second work of his opus 64 and the companion to the “Minute Waltz” (Op. 64, No. 1). Chopin dedicated this Waltz to Madame Nathaniel de Rothschild.
Composed and published 1835-1837 and dedicated to Countess Adèle Fürstenstein. Robert Schumann compared this scherzo to a Byronic poem, “so overflowing with tenderness, boldness, love and contempt.” According to Wilhelm von Lenz, a pupil of Chopin, the composer said that the renowned sotto voce opening was a question and the second phrase the answer: “For Chopin it was never questioning enough, never soft enough, never vaulted (tombe) enough. It must be a charnel-house.” Dubal wrote that critic James Huneker “exults”: “What masterly writing, and it lies in the very heart of the piano! A hundred generations may not improve on these pages.”
Alexander Ardakov - Piano
Born in Samara, Russia, Alexander Ardakov studied under the renowned pianist and professor Vera Gornostaeva at Moscow Conservatoire. Upon graduating, he joined the Moscow State Philharmonia as a performer.
String ensemble
28 March 2024
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