Chopin: Piano Sonatas Nos 2 & 3 – Rafal Blechacz

Rafał Blechacz has been closely associated with the music of Fryderyk Chopin throughout his career. His love for the music of his great compatriot began long before 2005, when he won the Warsaw Chopin Competition. The two famous sonatas have always been close to his heart and, as Blechacz says, never more so than today, “The Funeral March No. 2 has a special resonance at this difficult time with a pandemic and the war in Ukraine. When I recorded this sonata, I had a special feeling of devotion.” Blechacz complements the two major works with the haunting F-sharp minor Nocturne and the exquisite Barcarolle.

On the recording, he has placed the Nocturne in F-sharp minor, Op. 48/2, between the sonatas and added the Barcarolle to close the album. He points out a certain harmonic progression that the restless, foreboding Nocturne shares with a moment in the first movement of Sonata No. 2 (“one measure is almost exactly the same,” he says). The Sonata No. 3 and the Barcarolle come under the strong influence of Italian bel canto opera, which had been crucial to Chopin since his student days in Warsaw, when he fell in love with a young singer; he remained enthralled by opera for the rest of his life.