Frédéric Chopin

Although composed just a few years after the Op. 9 nocturnes, Frédéric Chopin's Three Nocturnes, Op. 15 (dedicated to friend and fellow pianist/composer Ferdinand Hiller -- still a relatively unknown musical figure in the early 1830s), show a distinct stylistic advance over the earlier group. The emphasis on consummate mastery of the "salon" style, so crucial an element of the composer's earlier music, is abandoned in favor of a far more personal approach: here we can speak of the melodic contours and depth of feeling as being typically "Chopinesque."

The Nocturne in F major, Op. 15, No. 1, is of the passionate type which the composer first explored in the third and final nocturne of the Op. 9 bunch. A tender, loving Andante melody opens this clear-cut ABA form; the more agitated middle section (marked con fuoco) uses a dramatic double-note texture to good effect. Unusually for the nocturnes, no coda follows the serene reprise of the opening gesture: instead, two delicately arpeggiated chords bring the work to a tranquil close. Many have remarked that there seems to be nothing of nighttime about this particular nocturne (indeed, one can almost imagine sunlight leaking from the piece's seams).

More famous is the second piece of the opus, cast in the superbly pianistic (but still musically exotic) key of F sharp major. Here is a flawless miniature, equal to the best efforts of the more mature output from the composer's later years. In the hands of a capable performer the flowing opening melody has the power to transport audiences to a degree seldom achieved by composers of even the highest echelon. The central, doppio movimento section grows from an initial sotto voce texture to a brief climax of fiery abandon, with a repetitive quintuplet figure (still a musical oddity in 1833) running throughout. The nineteenth century German pianist and teacher Theodor Kullak remarked that the return of the heavenly opening theme "touches one like a benediction."

The G minor nocturne that concludes the Op. 15 collection was apparently inspired, to some degree, by the composer's attendance at a performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet (on the original manuscript Chopin wrote, "After a performance of Hamlet" only to later cross out the indication and replace it with the exclamation, itself a source of great insight into the composer's aesthetic views, "No! Let them guess for themselves!"). In Chopin's nocturne we can easily see a kind of musical crystallization of the tragic atmosphere of Shakespeare's work. Virtuosity is laid firmly aside as the composer instead explores the feverish realms of psychological despair. The opening gesture, marked Languido e rubato, builds to a local climax, replete with musical sobs and sighs; a more hopeful passage, ushered in by a glorious enharmonic modulation and three bell-like tones, follows (marked religioso). There is no reprise of the opening: instead the piece ends, if not hopefully, then with an air of generous acceptance. While some think Op. 15, No. 3, to be the weakest of the group, others -- including Robert Schumann, an early advocate of Chopin's music -- see in it a powerful outpouring of Romantic sentiment, in the truest sense of the term. Chopin, true to form, does not tell stories or paint pictures, but rather presents "pure" music of the most expressive kind.