Although quite an early work, the Arabesques contain hints of Claude Debussy’s developing musical style. The suite is one of the very early impressionistic pieces of music, following the French visual art form.
Chopin’s 24 Preludes Op. 28, are a set of short pieces for the piano, one in each of the twenty-four keys, originally published in 1839. Chopin’s Prelude No 16 in B-Flat Minor, Presto con fuoco, is certainly the most difficult of the set.
Chopin’s Prelude No. 4 in E Minor is one of the 24 preludes opus 28 for piano. By Chopin’s request, this piece was played at his own funeral, along with Mozart’s Requiem.
The Prelude No 15 in D-Flat Major, nicknamed “Raindrop”, strikes one at first as an oasis of peace and calm. However, the transition from the bright key of D-Flat Major to the tenebrous C sharp minor brings dark, gloomy, disturbing sonorities.
Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23, dates to sketches Chopin made in 1831 during his eight-month stay in Vienna. It was completed in 1835 after his move to Paris, where he dedicated it to Baron Nathaniel von Stockhausen, the Hanoverian ambassador to France.
Chopin Prelude No 8, in F sharp minor, counters the calm simplicity of the seventh with a broad stream of sonority of peculiar beauty, diffused in rising and falling waves of airy figuration. Among its admirers was Witold Lutosławski, who called it a ‘wonder’.
Prelude No. 24 is the last one of Chopin’s 24 Preludes, a set of short pieces for the piano, one in each of the twenty-four keys, originally published in 1839. Frédéric Chopin wrote them between 1835 and 1839.
Chopin’s Prelude No 4 in E minor is one of the 24 preludes opus 28 for piano. By Frédéric Chopin’s request, this piece was played at his own funeral, along with Mozart’s Requiem.
4th piece from Book II, Der Zauberlehrling (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) is Ligeti’s Etude No 10 for piano and is dedicated to the French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard. György Ligeti composed a cycle of 18 études for solo piano between 1985 and 2001.
The Nocturnes, Op. 48 are a set of two nocturnes written by Frédéric Chopin in 1841 and published the following year in 1842. They are the only two nocturnes in opus 48 and are dedicated to Mlle. Laure Duperré.