Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante (Chopin)

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Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante Op. 22 in E-flat major was composed in 1831. The composer, Frédéric Chopin, made the additional movement "Andante spianato" in 1834. Both of them were published and dedicated to Madame d'Est in 1836.

Contents 1 Music 2 Movements 3 Notable players 4 External Links

[edit] Music

The Polonaise Op. 22 is a work for piano and orchestra, although the piano part is very effective and is often played on its own. The effects to the audience is excellent and the triplets are usually prevailing through the polonaises. This is usually considered to be one of Chopin's most difficult pieces for piano. Conjoined in performance, these works were born five years apart. The Andante Spianato (even or smooth) was composed for solo piano after Chopin received a long-awaited invitation to perform in one of Habaneck’s Conservatoire Concerts in Paris. It was premiered by the composer there on April 26, 1835.

Chopin’s first work, written at age seven, had been a polonaise. The Grande Polonaise of 1830–31 was to be the last such he would compose for several years. It was designed for piano and orchestra, and preoccupied Chopin in his final months at Warsaw. It was finished at Vienna in 1831. The Andante and Grande Polonaise were performed together in 1835, and published together a year later.

The Andante Spianato is in G major, one of Chopin’s calming and joyful keys, and its quiet rippling effects are borne in a gentle 6/8, rounded with a chordal trio in C-major, and a more processional 3/4.The Polonaise that follows, however, is a very different creature.

It is the brilliant and bravura property of a dazzling pianist trying to find an audience, and build a following. The Grande Polonaise opens in fanfare, in hammer strokes of tremendous energy and complicated point structure. It moves into the ebullient and fearless dance form of which he was such a master. Chopin’s unexpected and brief excursions, the many electric shocks of surprise and alarm, and the sheer poetic gusto with which he approached these materials was astonishing and, for years, unequalled. In 1836 it became a piano quartet and, two years later, the solo piano work known today.

Consequently the polonaise has been regarded as one of the most famous and brilliant polonaise pieces, however its orchestra accompaniment is not so sophisticated.

[edit] Movements

• Andante spianato: in G major

  Polonaise: in E flat major

[edit] Notable players

• Artur Rubinstein
• Halina Czerny-Stefanska
• Martha Argerich
• Kevin Kenner
• Yundi Li
• Garrick Ohlsson
• Idil Biret

[edit] External Links

• Andante Spianato, Op. 22 sheet music available at Musopen.com

v • d • e Polonaises by Frédéric Chopin Introduction and Polonaise brillante, Op. 3 · Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise brillante, Op. 22 · 2 Polonaises, Op. 26 · 2 Polonaises, Op. 40 · Polonaise, Op. 44 · Polonaise, Op. 53 · Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op. 61 · 3 Polonaises, Op. posth. 71 · Posthumous polonaises without opus numbers List of compositions by Frédéric Chopin