Chopin's
Scherzo No 2 in B Flat
Minor, Opus 31 was composed and published in 1837, five years
after the first. It was dedicated to Countess Adele Fürstensein.
Robert Schumann, a composer who frequently wrote about his
contemporary's works, compared this
Scherzo to
a Byronic poem, "so overflowing with tenderness, boldness,
love and contempt." Wilhlem von Lenz (one of Chopin's pupils)
wrote of the
sotto voce opening that "For Chopin
it was never questioning enough, never soft enough, never
vaulted (tombe) enough. It must be a charnel-house."
The overall structure of the Chopin
Scherzo No
2 is sonata form. The tempo marking is
presto with
the main melody marked
con anima(animated). Although
the
scherzo is in the key of B Flat Minor, most
of the work is written in D Flat major for the main section,
and A Major for the middle section. Chopin's
Scherzo
no 2 opens with two arpeggiated
pianissimo chords
in the key of B Flat Minor. A set of
fortissimo
chords follows these arpeggios creating a huge contrast.
A beautiful melody in D Flat follows to complete the main
section, which is repeated three times during the piece.
The trio (middle section) is filled with longing and contains
some exquisite melodic writing. Here Chopin takes some arpeggio
elements from the first section. Huneker writes of the trio
section: "What masterly writing, and it lies in the very
heart of the piano! A hundred generations may not improve
on these pages." Having performed this piece numerous times,
I always love to revel in the wonderful melodic writing
of this section. The coda ends in triumph, in the related
key of D Flat Major. In contrast the the
Scherzo
No 1, the second
Scherzo is somewhat more contained
and melodically pleasing, and is perhaps the more popular
of the four
Scherzi.
Listen to Chopin's
Scherzo No 2 in B Flat Minor played by Jonathan Oshry
