Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21

Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11

Frédéric Chopin was born in Poland to a French father and a Polish mother. That explains why his first name is also spelled as “Fryderyk.”

In 1826 when Chopin was sixteen, he began to attend the Warsaw Conservatory where he studied under Jozef Elsner. The two piano concertos are some of the fruits of Elsner’s tutelage. The work on the F minor Concerto began in late 1829, the year he graduated. On 7 February 1830, the first performance of this new work took place in a private concert as a trial run. The nineteen-year-old composer was the soloist accompanied by a small ensemble. The official first performance was given at the National Theatre, Warsaw, on 17 March 1830. This concert opened with Elsner’s Overture to Leszek Bialy (Leszek the White) followed by Chopin’s F minor Concerto. Chopin, in addition, played his Fantaisie (later re-named as Rondo à la Krakowiak) to conclude the second half of the programme. This concert was so successful that the programme was repeated five days later.

Buoyed with success, Chopin completed his E minor Concerto by the end of August. Chopin again was the soloist in the first performance that took place on 11 October 1830 in Warsaw. The following year, he took the concerto to Vienna in June, Munich in August, and made his spectacular debut finally in Paris on 26 February 1832.

The success of Chopin’s concerts was partly due to his creative adaptation of Polish music. Both the F minor and the E minor concertos make use of Polish dances in the last movement. The E minor makes use of the krakowiak. The F minor sounds more rustic with its mazurka. The ethnic element in the third movement is an excellent counterweight to the more academic and formal first movement.

It is often said that Chopin’s piano writing was greatly influenced by bel canto operas. In both concertos, Chopin incessantly instructs the pianist to play legatissimo and delicatissimo to create an illusion of what is basically a percussion instrument sing out with floating sonority in mid-air.

The central part of the slow movement to the F minor Concerto is essentially a pianist’s recreation and elaboration of recitative-cadenza from bel canto operas, complete with shivering tremolos on string instruments accompanying the pianist who “sings” with technical agility that would actually be vocally impossible.

It is often mentioned that at the time of composing this concerto, Chopin was infatuated with soprano Konstancja Gladkowska. It must also be pointed out that the years 1830 and 1831 were the golden years of bel canto. Bellini’s Romeo and Juliet opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi was premiered on 11 March 1830 in Venice, La Sonnambula on 6 March 1831 in Milan, and Norma in Paris on 26 December in the same year. Also in that same year, Paris saw Donizetti’s Anna Bolena on 1 September which had been greatly successful in Milan the previous year.

Perhaps the most significant event of 1831 occurred on 21 November in when one Giacomo Meyerbeer, a Jewish composer from Germany working in Italy, brought his Robert le diable to the Paris stage and changed history. Only two years before, Parisians saw what they thought was the grandest French opera: Guillaume Tell by Giacchino Rossini. Robert le diable was so successful that Rossini had to retire. This veteran composer was not yet forty years old.

This was the scene that Chopin plunged into in Paris. Soon after his arrival, he met Meyberbeer, Bellini, Liszt, Berlioz and cellist/composer Auguste Franchomme (1808-1884). Franchomme was the only person who remained as Chopin’s true friend literally to the last day.

Chopin’s friendship with Franchomme is historically and musically important. Chopin dedicated his last major composition, the Cello Sonata, to Franchomme and with the cellist performed it on 16 February 1848 which turned out to be his last public performance.

Franchomme’s contributions are numerous: he orchestrated Chopin’s Second Piano Sonata (yes, the one with the funeral march which Elgar also orchestrated some one hudred years later), made a virtuoso version of Chopin’s Introduction et Polonaise brillante (yes, Chopin wrote this piece for cello and piano which bears the opus number 3). Franchomme also preserved Chopin’s E minor Concerto when he wrote out the orchestral accompaniment as a second piano reduction (unfortunately only the second and third movements exist today). Little known is the fact that, collaborating with Franchomme, Chopin composed the Grand Duo Concertant sur des thèmes de “Robert le diable.

One of the first commission--if not the first--that was offered to Chopin soon after his arrival in Paris was to write an opera paraphrase on Robert le diable. This is the only known “arrangement” that Chopin made of another composer’s work. It is a true bravura piece, filled with dazzling technical display similar to those found in his two concertos. It is also an excellent example of Chopin’s sense of drama and architectural design without the constraints of pre-determined form as found in concerto writing. Chopin must have been impressed with Meyerbeer’s new opera because he was just as dedicated to writing this piece as he did for his own original compositions.

Chopin is often accused of having written “salon music.” His two concertos, three sonatas (Nos. 2 and 3 for piano, cello sonata), and the Grand Duo prove the contrary.

Chopin’s melodies can confuse a listener into thinking that something that beautiful must be cheap and skin-deep. The truth is that the engine that drives Chopin’s music is his harmony and not melody. Chopin’s attractive melodies are biproducts of his harmonic progression. For example, the F minor Concerto begins with a chromatic descending line that is strikingly original. The first movement development section in both concertos progress with a harmonic design that is bold and daring. Unfortunately, many pianists play the concertos as if they are a long series of interminable nocturnes.

Another contributing factor to the impression that Chopin’s music is lightweight salon music is the incompetent orchestration of the concertos. Chopin did not do his own orchestration--he did not know how. The anonymous arranger apparently had no understanding of Chopin’s complex harmonic language. Besides the chromaticism, Chopin made use of extreme dissonance. Chopin utilised various kinds of dissonance, and similar to his classmate Dobrzyinski, Chopin had a unique affinity for the augmented sixth chord. Chopin especially liked the so-called “French” augmented sixth chord which is made up of two sets of tritones. Such dissonance cannot be heard or felt in the concertos simply because the arranger left out or de-emphasized the dissonant notes. Perhaps the arranger thought they were wrong notes, or he was embarrassed by them. Or he did not know how to distribute the notes among the orchestral instruments. As a result, the most critical moments of high drama are ruined.

Evidently, there was a long delay in publishing the concertos. It is said that the F minor Concerto, although written earlier, bears a later opus number and is called “No.2” because it was published after the E minor. No satisfactory reason was given to explain what exactly happened. Careful examination of the skills used in orchestrating the concertos reveals that the E minor Concerto was orchestrated first. The orchestration of the F minor, however bad it may be, is nevertheless an improvement over the E minor. In the F minor, the unknown arranger displays a more secure grasp of basic knowledge such as the range and tonal colors of different instruments.

There have been attempts to correct these unacceptable orchestrations. Cortot and Klindworth not only re-orchestrated but also re-composed portions of the F minor. Tausig and Balakirev “improved” the E minor. Paderewski used to play Burnmeister’s version of the F minor that even provides the “missing” cadenza in the first movement. It makes one wonder if Elgar liked what he heard in 1899. It would be safe to say that at least the intention of these arrangements was good.

Chopin’s concertos are presented tonight in my new version. My attempt was only to realise the original concept Chopin must have had. I approached the works by scrutinising the second-piano accompaniment and comparing it to the traditional orchestration. It is astonishing to see how unpianistic and orchestral the second-piano part really is. Chopin was a master at imagining different sonorities. He clearly thought out a role for the orchestra that was totally different from that of the piano soloist. None of the complex harmonic progression, juicy dissonance, and jaunty counterpoint are newly composed. My attempt was made to restore harmonic tension and supply the missing notes when necessary. There is only one exception: for two bars that lack orchestral texture in the first movement of the F minor Concerto, I quote an analogous passage in Chopin’s Grand Duo which contains diametrically opposing chromatic lines. This quotation is a special hommage to Franchomme and Meyerbeer whose Robert le diable is the bible of orchestration from the nineteenth century.

My revision of the two concertos is a tribute not only to Chopin but also to his collegues and admirers.

December 3, 2005