Frédéric Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35 was written mainly in 1839 at Nohant, near Châteauroux in France, though the third movement, the funeral march, had been composed as early as 1837.
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The sonata comprises four movements:
The first movement features a stormy opening theme and a gently lyrical second theme. The second movement is a virtuoso scherzo with a more relaxed melodic central section. The third movement begins and ends with the celebrated funeral march in B flat minor which gives the sonata its nickname, but has a calm interlude in D flat major. The finale contains a whirlwind of unremitting parallel octaves, with unvarying tempo and dynamics, and not a single rest or chord until the final bars. James Huneker, in his introduction to the American version of Mikuli edition of the Sonatas, quotes Chopin as saying "The left hand unisono with the right hand are gossiping after the March". Arthur Rubinstein is said to have remarked that the fourth movement is the "wind howling around the gravestones".
The Sonata confused contemporary critics who found it lacked cohesion. Robert Schumann suggested that Chopin had in this sonata "simply bound together four of his most unruly children." (See Schirmer's modern reprint of the Mikuli edition)
As noted above, the third movement is structured as a funeral march played with a Lento interlude. While the term "funeral march" is perhaps a fitting description of the 3rd movement, complete with the Lento Interlude in D flat major, "Chopin's Funeral March" is used commonly to describe only the funeral march proper (in B flat minor). The "funeral march" has become well known in popular culture. It was used at the state funerals of John F. Kennedy and those of Soviet leaders, including Leonid Brezhnev. It was transcribed for full orchestra by the English composer Sir Edward Elgar in 1933 (in D minor) and its first performance was at his own memorial concert the next year. It was also transcribed for large orchestra by the conductor Leopold Stokowski; this version has been recorded for the first time by Matthias Bamert. It was played at the graveside during Chopin's own burial at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.[1]
The sonata's opening bars allude to Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111, Beethoven's last. The basic sequence of scherzo, funeral march with trio, and animated, resolving finale, repeats that of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 12 A-flat major; however, Chopin's first movement is written in sonata form while Beethoven's first movement is a set of variations on an original theme. Chopin was known to have admired these two Beethoven sonatas.[2]
Erik Satie, in the second movement of his "Embryons desséchés" - of an Edriophthalma - uses a variation on the Funeral March's theme.
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