Nocturne No. 2 - Op. 9

About this Piece

The E-flat major Nocturne is the ultimate paradox of the piano repertoire, a work so ubiquitous it has been reduced to musical wallpaper despite a DNA that is surprisingly radical. Composed in the early 1830s as Chopin began his conquest of the Parisian salons, the piece is less a piano solo and more an operatic aria for the keyboard. It captures the essence of bel canto through its winding fiorituras and the controversial doctrine of tempo rubato. In this rhythmic "stolen time," the left hand acts as a steady conductor while the right hand wanders with the expressive freedom of a prima donna. Historically, the piece is a nest of interpersonal ironies. Its choice of E-flat major as the original key was a deliberate nod to the genre’s inventor, John Field, who nonetheless dismissed the younger man as a "sickroom talent" after hearing these early efforts. The dedication to Marie Pleyel adds a layer of highbrow scandal. She was the virtuosa for whom Hector Berlioz once plotted a triple murder involving pistols and a maid’s disguise, only to later use the composer’s own apartment for an illicit tryst with Franz Liszt. Even the author grew weary of the work’s popularity. When a persistent student, Wilhelm von Lenz, begged for a fourth lesson on the piece, the master drily marked a final cross in the score and told him that more than three he never gave, as the student simply could not do it any better. It remains a masterpiece of earnest sadness that miraculously survives its own fame.