The Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 35, is a piano sonata in four movements by Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. Chopin completed the work while living in George Sand's manor in Nohant, some south of Paris, a year before it was published in 1840. The first of the composer's three mature sonatas (the others being the Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 and the Sonata for Piano and Cello in G minor, Op. 65), the work is considered to be one of the greatest piano sonatas of the literature.
The third movement of the Piano Sonata No. 2 is Chopin's famous funeral march (; ) which was composed at least two years before the remainder of the work and has remained, by itself, one of Chopin's most popular compositions. The Piano Sonata No. 2 carries allusions and reminiscences of music by J. S. Bach and by Ludwig van Beethoven; Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 12 also has a funeral march as its third movement. A typical performance of Chopin's second sonata lasts between 21 and 25 minutes, depending on whether the repetition of the first movement's exposition is observed.
While the Piano Sonata No. 2 gained instant popularity with the public, critical reception was initially more doubtful. Robert Schumann, among other critics, argued that the work was structurally inferior and that Chopin "could not quite handle sonata form", a criticism that did not withstand time. The work has been recorded by numerous pianists and is regularly programmed in concerts and piano competitions. The Marche funèbre exists in countless arrangements and has been performed at funerals all over the world (including Chopin's own), having become an archetypal evocation of death.
Historical background The Piano Sonata No. 2 was written during a time where the sonata lost its overpowering dominance. While the sonatas of Beethoven and Mozart comprised a considerable portion of their compositional output, this is not true of the next generation of composers: Franz Liszt only wrote two sonatas among his dozens of instrumental compositions, Robert Schumann seven (eight if including the Fantasie in C, Op. 17), and Felix Mendelssohn thirteen. Besides the Piano Sonata No. 2, Chopin wrote only three other sonatas: the Piano Sonata in C minor (Op. posth. 4), written at the age of eighteen; the Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor (Op. 58); and the Sonata for Piano and Cello in G minor (Op. 65).Leikin (1994), p. 176
The compositional origins of the Piano Sonata No. 2, the first mature piano sonata Chopin wrote,Leikin (1994), p. 177 are centred on its third movement (Marche funèbre), a funeral march which many scholars indicate was written in 1837.Petty (1999), p. 284 However, Jeffrey Kallberg believes that such indications are because of an autograph manuscript of eight bars of music in D major marked Lento cantabile, apparently written as a gift to an unnamed recipient. The manuscript, which is dated 28 November 1837, would later become part of the trio of the Marche funèbre. However, Kallberg suggests this manuscript may have been intended as the beginning of an earlier attempt of a different slow movement instead of being part of the Marche funèbre, writing that "it would have been unusual for Chopin to make a gift of a manuscript that, if it did not contain an entire piece, did not at least quote the beginning of it", as almost all of his other presentation manuscripts did. He also suggests that a four-hand arrangement by Julian Fontana of the Marche funèbre may be connected with an abandoned piano sonata for four hands that Chopin wrote in 1835, originally to be published as his Op. 28 (which was instead appropriated to the 24 Preludes, Op. 28), therefore raising the possibility that the movement may actually date from 1835 instead of the generally accepted 1837.Kallberg (2001), pp. 4–8
Some time after writing the Marche funèbre, Chopin composed the other movements, completing the entire sonata by 1839. In a letter on 8 August 1839, addressed to Fontana, Chopin wrote:
Haslinger's unauthorised dissemination of Chopin's early C minor sonata (he had gone as far as engraving the work and allowing it to circulate, against the composer's wishes) may have increased the pressure Chopin had to publish a piano sonata, which may explain why Chopin added the other movements to the Marche funèbre to produce a sonata. The work was finished in the summer of 1839 in Nohant (near Châteauroux), in France, and published in May 1840 in London, Leipzig, and Paris. The work was not furnished with a dedication.
Analysis
The sonata comprises four movements:
I. Grave – Doppio movimento 5–7 minutes The first movement is in a modified sonata form in B minor and time. It opens with a four-bar introduction in the relative major, D majorLeikin (2001), p. 570 marked Grave, followed by a tempo change to Doppio movimento, a key change to the tonic key, and the introduction of an agitatedJonson (1905), p. 124 bass accompanimental figure; four bars later, the main theme enters. The main theme, marked agitato, is followed by a second theme, in D major, which is marked piano and sostenuto. In the beginning of the development, all of the themes introduced in the exposition appear. Later in the development, a seemingly new tune, which is actually an inversion of part of the second theme, is introduced. In the climax of the development, Chopin combines three elements at once: the motifs from the Grave introduction and the main theme in the bass and treble respectively, with crotchet triplets in the middle. In the recapitulation, the principal section containing the main theme does not return, possibly inspired by the older binary sonata form typical of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas;Leikin (1994), p. 187 instead, only the lyrical second theme returns in the tonic's parallel major of B. The movement is closed with a brilliant 12-bar stretto which forms a coda of 12 bars, ending in three B major chords marked (fortississimo).
Repeat of the exposition When the sonata was published in 1840 in the usual three cities of Paris, Leipzig, and London,Rosen (1995), p. 279 the London and Paris editions indicated the repeat of the exposition as starting at the very beginning of the movement (at the Grave section). However, the Leipzig edition designed the repeat as beginning at the Doppio movimento section. Although the critical edition published by Breitkopf & Härtel (that was edited, among others, by Franz Liszt, Carl Reinecke, and Johannes Brahms) indicate the repeat similarly to the London and Paris first editions, almost all 20th-century editions are similar to the Leipzig edition in this regard. Charles Rosen argues that the repeat of the exposition in the manner perpetrated by the Leipzig edition is a serious error, saying it is "musically impossible" as it interrupts the D major cadence (which ends the exposition) with the B minor accompanimental figure.Rosen (1995), p. 280 Edward T. Cone agrees, calling the repeat to the Doppio movimento "nonsense". However, Leikin advocates for excluding the Grave from the repeat of the exposition, citing in part that Karol Mikuli's 1880 complete edition of Chopin contained a repeat sign after the Grave in the first movement of the Piano Sonata No. 2. Mikuli was a student of Chopin from 1844 to 1848 and also observed lessons Chopin gave to other students – including those where this sonata was taught – and took extensive notes.Leikin (2001), p. 581
Most commercial recordings exclude the Grave from the repetition of the exposition, including those of Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Stefan Askenase, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Vlado Perlemuter, Rafał Blechacz, Nelson Freire, Cécile Ousset, Andrei Gavrilov, Hélène Grimaud, Peter Jablonski, Wilhelm Kempff, Nikita Magaloff, Krystian Zimerman, Murray Perahia, Maurizio Pollini (in his 1985 recording), and Yuja Wang. However, Pollini's 2008 recording, Louis Lortie's, and Mitsuko Uchida's recordings, among others, begin the repetition from the Grave. Other recordings, including those of Alfred Cortot, Robert Casadesus, Guiomar Novaes, Daniel Barenboim, Seong-Jin Cho, Vladimir Horowitz, Julius Katchen, Evgeny Kissin, İdil Biret, Garrick Ohlsson, Ivo Pogorelić, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arthur Rubinstein, and Khatia Buniatishvili, exclude the repetition altogether.
II. Scherzo 6–7 minutes
The second movement is a scherzo in E minor and time with no tempo indication. Anatole Leikin suggests that the absence of the tempo indication can be explained by the close similarities of this movement and the closing section of the first movement, including the prevalence of repeated octaves and chords in both movements, and the identical cadential phrases. Therefore, the absence of a tempo indication may suggest that there is no new tempo, but instead a mere change of notation (from triplets to triple metre).Leikin (1994), p. 187–188
The movement is in the conventional scherzo-trio-scherzo formLeikin (1994), p. 189 with the trio in G major. The scherzo's explosive rhythmic and dynamic power, as well as its furious insistence on repeated chords and octaves, places it in the tradition of the scherzo movements of Beethoven. However, unlike Beethoven, whose scherzos are transformed minuets, this scherzo has many defining rhythmic characteristics that make it a transformed mazurka instead. The trio, marked Più lento, has a songlike quality to it with its simple, sensuous melody.Huneker (1900), p. 297 Following the return of the scherzo is a coda that is a condensed reprise of the trioLeikin (1994), p. 190 and therefore ends the work in the relative major; other works of Chopin that also end in the relative major include the Scherzo No. 2 in B minor (Op. 31) and the Fantaisie in F minor (Op. 49).
III. Marche funèbre: Lento
8–9 minutes
The third movement, titled Marche funèbre, is a "stark juxtaposition of funeral march and pastoral trio".Boczkowska (2012), p. 217 The movement is in B minor and time with the trio in the relative major of D. The tempo designation, Lento, was not added until after the sonata's publication in 1840. The movement opens with a melody consisting of just a repeated B for almost three measures accompanied by alternating B (without the third) and G major chords that ring like a funeral bell. This melodic device was also used as the backbone for the main theme of the preceding Scherzo movement and part of the coda of the opening movement. The melody following the repeated B, is, as Alan Walker notes, "a strict retrograde" of the first movement's main theme. The trio of the movement, which is in the tonic's relative major, consists of a serene nocturne-like melodyJonson (1905), p. 125 accompanied by quavers in the left hand.