My Most Favorite Nocturne ---- C Minor

Few Chopin’s nocturnes possess such emotional and dynamic fluctuations, and this piece is one of the few! Valentina perfectly controls the rhythms of the three sections. The C-Minor begins slowly, ponderously with a stream of pains spurting from inside out; perplexing why romantic love appears over. (Here is a key: some players interprets as a wounded soldier walking out from the battlefield, then it becomes more Beethoven, less Chopin) . Then the second theme intrudes in with a serious of the 11th-13th broken chords, representing the pains have been eased, and the fate has been realized and accepted. Halfway through, the C-Minor erupts a rage, then developed into a strong contradiction of two themes, one soft but gradually bright and strong, the other gloomy, depressed, but more and more hasting, symbolizing why it should be so. Towards end, there comes a resolution -- acceptance of love lost and depression, but finally a resurrection with redisplaying the initial theme however with brighter and faster major chords!

You might, very likely out of curiosity, ask a question why I choose Valentina Igoshina’s version. Here’s my answer. First, I like most the master Claudio Arrau’s interpretation, who has indisputably become the most recognized Chopin nocturne player, and Valentina’s performance is 99%, if not a hundred percent replica of Claudio. Secondly, the photography is dream-like and the player is beautiful.

[鐵拐鯉]

I listened to the nocturne and watched her many times this week. Now i can understand (hope so) your insight about this piece.
The music melts my heart...
She plays beautifully. She is beautiful,very pretty in any case.
I like the way she put the passion and emotions in the play.

no wonder it's your "most favorite nocturne":)

phenomenal piece!

[欣欣~]

謝謝分享啊，非常喜歡，音樂扣人心弦，燈光如夢如幻，演奏者很美，你的文字介紹解釋得很到位。：)

[Adagios]

回複鐵拐鯉的評論: For piano pros, this one is the master-piece 代表作 of his 21 nocturnes, even though it is not the most popular one. But its chords progression reaches to a unprecedented culmination among his nocturnes. You can say this piece is more like his mini-ballade.

[鐵拐鯉]

你對樂曲英語詮釋真是太好了。看了後讓我不得不多次聽這隻Nocturne。
一點都不錯：第一遍聽沒覺得特別喜歡。可是越聽越有味。已經聽了不下１０遍了。很感人！尤其要謝謝你的文字介紹：）

[雪冰月]

when i saw her fingers dancing on the keyboard, i understand how difficult it is to play such a beautiful piece.

co: waiting for your version. hehe