Note: Program notes were written with AI assistance.
Chopin — Nocturne in E♭ major, Op. 9 No. 2
Composed ca. 1830–32, when Chopin was about 20, this is by far his most famous nocturne.
The work is in a rounded‐binary design (A, A′, B, A′, B, A′ + coda), with each return of the principal theme made more ornate and chromatically enriched. Its singing melody, gentle accompaniment, and expressive rubato reflect Chopin’s absorption of bel canto style, especially in his Paris years.
Jacques Duphly — Suite in C Minor (Premier livre de pièces de clavecin)
Duphly (1715–1789) was among the later French clavecinists whose style bridges the high baroque and the emerging galant idiom.
His Premier livre de pièces de clavecin (1744) contains two suites; the C-minor one is the second suite, featuring danses and character pieces.
• Allemande opens in stately dance rhythm.
• La Boucon is a courante dedicated to Anne-Jeanne Boucon, a noted harpsichordist.
• La Larare is a more intimate character piece. (Little is documented.)
• Rondeau brings back recurring refrains typical of French rondeau form.
• La Millettina is sprightly and light, often taking a gigue-like character.
These movements exhibit Duphly’s blending of ornamentation, dance rhythms, and expressive nuance, anticipating the stylistic shift toward the Classical era.
Chopin — Prelude in E Minor, Op. 28 No. 4
This prelude is one of Chopin’s most compact, introspective works: only about a page long, yet deeply affecting. Hans von Bülow nicknamed it “suffocation” for its sense of compressed tension and inward struggle. The harmony features a descending bass line and chromatic motion, giving a feeling of inevitability and emotional weight. Chopin apparently wished this piece played at his funeral, indicating its special emotional import.
Jean-Philippe Rameau — Pièces de clavecin (selected)
Rameau’s Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin (aka his third book) was published in 1728, and marks his final keyboard-only publication.
• Allemande & Courante in A minor (from Suite in A minor) — these embody the formal dance tradition in Rameau’s idiom, combining harmonic adventurousness with French ornamented style.
• Les Soupirs and Les Tourbillons (Rondeau) in D major (from Pièces de clavecin) — “Les Soupirs” (“The Sighs”) is expressive and melancholic, whereas Les Tourbillons (a rondo) suggests swirling motion. (These are among his “character pieces.”)
• L’Égyptienne and Les Sauvages in G minor (from Nouvelles suites) — Les Sauvages evokes European fascination (and caricature) with “exotic” ‘noble savage’ themes; L’Égyptienne suggests a mysterious, dramatic character evoking a (perhaps oriental) otherness.
Rameau’s pieces often blur the boundary between dance and character, and his harmonic imagination and rhythmic invention lend them freshness even today.
Chopin — Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58
Composed in 1844 and published in 1845, the Third Sonata represents Chopin’s mature engagement with large-scale form. Although Chopin preferred shorter genres, this sonata demonstrates his command of contrapuntal writing, chromaticism, and thematic transformation.
One formal oddity: in the first movement, the recapitulation does not return via the first theme but begins with the second, giving him greater flexibility in the developmental writing.
The first movement opens with a resolute descending motive in B minor, leading into episodes of contrapuntal elaboration and a lyrical second subject.
Later movements contrast scherzo energy, a dignified slow movement, and a virtuosic finale.
Overall, the Sonata traverses tragedy, lyricism, and bravura, concluding with a fiery rondo that affirms the tonic B minor.
