Chopin, the Poet of the Piano, Part 4

Sarah Walker introduces the last in a short season of recitals given by Welsh pianist Llŷr celebrating Chopin's piano music. Recorded at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff earlier this month, today's highlights include Chopin's second piano sonata, known best through its third movement. This famous funeral march was used at Winston Churchill and John F Kennedy's funerals, as well as Chopin's own in 1849. From a dramatic opening, the sonata's four movements show Chopin making full use of all the advances in piano development with the light and shade of flashes of brilliance in the scherzo, while the solemnity of the funeral march is set alongside his melodic gifts. The briefest of final movements adds a brilliant conclusion.

Programme includes:
Chopin: Piano Sonata No.2 in B-flat minor, Op 35
Chopin: Ballade No.3 in A-flat major, Op 47

Producer: Johannah Smith