Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31 (Chopin)
Movements
Notes
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.”
