Piano Concerto No. 2 (Chopin)


The Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21, is a piano concerto composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1829. Chopin wrote the piece before he had finished his formal education, at around 20 years of age. It was first performed on 17 March 1830, in Warsaw, Poland, with the composer as soloist. It was the second of his piano concertos to be published, and so was designated as "No. 2", even though it was written first.

Structure

The work contains the three movements typical of instrumental concertos of the period:
Maestoso
Larghetto
A work of "undescribable beauty", this nocturnal movement was inspired by Chopin's distant idolization of Konstancja Gładkowska. The main theme is introduced by the piano after an orchestral introduction and is later repeated twice and again, at measure 82, is enhanced by the sublime entrance of the bassoon in canon, followed by the bassoon transitioning to a counter-melody.
Allegro vivace
The virtuosic finale is in sonata form. The violins and violas are at one point instructed to play col legno. For the piano, the final sections are regarded as extremely technically demanding.

Orchestration

Chopin's fellow composers and Prof. Elsner's former students, Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński and Tomasz Nidecki, are believed to have helped him orchestrate his piano concertos. This gave an excuse for other musicians to make slight alterations in the score. Alfred Cortot created his own orchestration of the F minor concerto and recorded it with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under John Barbirolli in 1935. Ingolf Wunder recorded Alfred Cortot's orchestration with minor changes done by himself in 2015. More recently, Mikhail Pletnev recorded his arrangements of both of Chopin's piano concertos, conducting the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with pianist Daniil Trifonov.