The Chopin Nocturne Op27-2 is sublimely beautiful piano music. It is similar to the Chopin Berceuse in that the melodic and dramatic narratives of the piece work themselves out over an essentially static background.
But here the comparison ends. In the Berceuse the left hand is virtually unchanging throughout while the right hand weaves its somniferous magic. In this Nocturne there is tension between a melody trying repeatedly to take flight and escape the confines of an accompaniment unwilling to allow it to do so.
What begins as a lovely, lilting and bittersweet spianato melody becomes increasingly fraught with tension as it must turn this way and that to try to evolve against accompaniment gently unwaivering in its determination. There is a climactic moment at which the two forces do battle when the melody makes a final, unsuccessful attempt to break away, and gives up. In this moment, Chopin accomplishes a dramatic effect that surpasses all the fortississimo sturm and drang of the 19th Century.
While there are many beautiful renditions here, Allow me to single out the 1961 recording by Dame Moura Lympany as being most exquisite and one of the finest performance of Chopin I have ever encountered. The Lipatti performance is also marvelous.
Alas, the interpretation that fails completely is the one by Lang Lang in which the tranquil mood is maintained throughout and the meaning of the music lost.
MARTHA ARGERICH Argentine Pianist (b 1941) Recorded live in 1972
VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY Russian Pianist (b.1937)
IDIL BIRET Turkish Pianist (b.1941)
LOUIS DIÉMER French Pianist (1843-1919) Recorded c. 1903-04
JOZEF HOFMANN Polish-American Pianist (1876-1957) Recorded in 1935
