Chopin’s piano sonatas span a wide creative period, from his time as a student to five years before his death, when he was still in good health and his relationship with George Sand had not yet begun to deteriorate. Two of the three Chopin piano sonatas are cornerstones of the romantic piano repertoire; the first sonata is heard far less frequently in performance or recording. Chopin has been most revered as a miniaturist; much has been written discussing Chopin’s larger-scale works: some have criticized his seeming lack of formal skill, while others have come to praise his compositional anomalies as innovation and ingenuity. Regardless, Chopin’s characteristically transcendent, fluid melodies, unique pianistic beauty and distinctive poetic voice permeate these three sonatas.

Sonata No.1 in C minor, Op.4
i Allegro maestoso ii Menuetto
iii Larghetto
iv Finale: Presto

The first piano sonata, Op.4, was completed in 1828, but was not published until two years after his death. It is a juvenile composition dedicated to Józef Elsner, the only teacher whom Chopin formally recognised. Op.4 is Chopin’s first large-scale work, and while it might not have the compositional deftness of later works, it has many moments of great appeal, and has been perhaps unfairly neglected in comparison to the two later sonatas. Chopin wrote: “My father has written to say that my old sonata [in C minor, Op.4] has been published … and that the German critics praise it.”

Sonata No.2 in B-flat minor, Op.35
i Grave – Doppio movimento
ii Scherzo
iii Marche funèbre: Lento
iv Finale: Presto

Chopin’s second piano sonata was completed in 1839 at Nohant, the French country house of George Sand. The emotional core of the sonata, the famous funeral march, had been composed a year or two earlier: “I am writing here a Sonata in B flat minor which will contain my March which you already know. There is an Allegro, then a Scherzo in E flat minor, the March and a short Finale about three pages of my manuscript-paper. The left hand and the right-hand gossip in unison after the March.” The second sonata comprises four movements: a sonata-form movement followed by a Scherzo, the Funeral March, and a fleeting and elusive final movement.

While the piece was a success with the public, this sonata also encountered the same critical scrutiny as others of his large form works. Schumann, otherwise Chopin’s champion, had this to say: “The idea of calling it a sonata is a caprice, if not a jest, for he has simply bound together four of his most reckless children, thus under his name smuggling them into a place into which they could not else have penetrated.”

Sonata No.3 in B minor, Op.58
i Allegro maestoso
ii Scherzo: Molto vivace
iii Largo
iv Finale: Presto non tanto

Like the second sonata, Chopin completed his third piano sonata at the Nohant estate, at a happy time in his relationship with George Sand, and when he was still physically well. It is dedicated to his student and friend, Countess Emilie de Perthuis.