Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. (Chopin)

Background#

Frédéric Chopin composed the piece shortly after arriving in Vienna in 1830. He sent it to his older sister Ludwika Chopin with the dedication, “For my sister Ludwika to practise before she takes on my second Concerto”. Ludwika’s catalogued it as a “Lento, of a nocturne character”. The November Uprising in Poland occurred shortly after Chopin arrived in Vienna. The piece is sometimes seen as a reflection of the composer’s homesickness and isolation after learning of the revolt. The title Reminiscence or Reminiscence Nocturne is associated with this interpretation of the music. Chopin biographer Marceli Antoni Szulc came across the manuscript in 1875 and persuaded Jarosław Leitgeber to publish it. The score was titled Adagio. Ludwika’s taxonomy eventually became the standard, and the piece is classed as a nocturne. Its most common title derives from the tempo marking Lento con gran espressione. Mily Balakirev premiered the piece on October 17, 1894, 45 years after Chopin’s death. The performance celebrated the unveiling of a monument to the composer in his birthplace, Żelazowa Wola.

Musical structure#

The score is highly autobiographical with several quotations from Chopin’s other compositions. The Nocturne’s original theme returns before the piece concludes with a C major chord.

During the Holocaust#

On September 23, 1939, Polish-Jewish pianist Władysław Szpilman’s performance of Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor, which was being broadcast live on Polskie Radio, was interrupted by the German invasion of Warsaw. Later, during the final months of World War II, German army officer Wilm Hosenfeld discovered Szpilman hiding in an abandoned house in the Warsaw Ghetto, which had been destroyed during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. When Szpilman described himself as a pianist, Hosenfeld asked him to play something on the house’s grand piano. Szpilman chose to play the Nocturne in C-sharp minor, after which Hosenfeld protected Szpilman and gave him food to survive. At the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, Nazi commandant Amon Goeth ordered the imprisoned Jewish pianist Natalia Karp to perform for his birthday. She chose Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor because it was melancholy enough to describe her feelings. She played so well that Goeth spared her life, and that of her sister. In 2002, director Roman Polanski dramatized the radio station’s final live broadcast in The Pianist, which was based on Szpilman’s memoirs; however, he changed the piece that was played to Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23.

External links#

• Recording by Markus Brylka synced with manuscript, via YouTube.
• Lento con gran espressione at Piano Library.