Chopin's
Scherzo No 3 in C Sharp
Minor was completed in 1839 - seven years after the first
- when Chopin paid what turned out to be an unhappy visit
to Majorca. It is quite evident that Chopin's skill in form
and construction had improved drastically, as this
scherzo
is far less repetitive than the first. The third
scherzo
is the most terse, ironic, and tightly constructed of the
four
scherzi, with an almost Beethovenian grandeur.
It is in modified sonata form. James Huneker memorably described
this work as ‘a sombre and fantastic pile of architecture,
and about it hovers despairing and perpetual light’.
The
Scherzo no 3 begins mysteriously, in almost
Lisztian vein, in a variety of keys which highlights the
ambiguity of the main key. Only when the fierce main theme
announces itself in the
forte octaves does the
key of C Sharp Minor assert itself. These passages are technically
challenging as they require an excellent octave technique
in order to give them the correct character and effect.
The highly energetic first section is followed by a contrasting
chorale-like subject in D Flat Major. This chorale theme
is interspersed with delicate falling
arpeggios.
Louis Kentner refers to it as "a Wagnerian melody of astonishing
beauty, recalling the sound of tubas, harps and all the
apocalyptic orchestra of Valhalla." After the return
of the main octave theme, we again hear the chorale-like
theme but this time in the key of E Major and then
pianissimo
in E Minor. From this air of mystery, the
scherzo
grows in tempo and dynamics, unleashing a flurry of octaves
down the keyboard and into the coda. This coda is a real
finger buster, and brings the work to a rhtorical ending
in C Sharp Major.
Listen to Chopin's
Scherzo No 3 in C Sharp Minor played by Jonathan Oshry
