Ravinia 2026 Issue 3

FRYDERYKFRANCISZEKCHOPIN (1810–1849) Four Mazurkas Franz Liszt devoted one entire chapter in his Chopin biography to a description of his friend’s artistic transformation of the Polish peasant dance form—the mazurka. “Chopin released the poetic unknown which was only suggested in the original themes of Polish ma- zurkas. He preserved the rhythm, ennobled the melody, enlarged the proportions, and infused a harmonic chiaroscuro as novel as the subjects it supported—all this in order to paint in these productions (which he loved to hear us call easel pictures ) the innumerable and so widely differing emotions that excite the heart while the dance goes on.” Even before Liszt’s 1852 biography, audiences and musicians overwhelmingly viewed Chopin’s mazurkas as miniature keyboard portraits. In his supreme hands, the mazurka’s utter simplic- ity of form (traditionally, three parts in which the first and last share a common theme) and substance (three beats per measure, often with a dotted rhythm on the first beat and special emphasis on beat two) evolved into a Romantic poetic medium penetrating to the “unknown” recesses of the soul. This inward quality con- trasted with the polonaise, another dance genre elevated by Chopin, which reflected a more ex- troverted side of the Polish identity. Chopin’s nearly 60 mazurkas embodied a wide variety of sentiments, which Liszt categorized as “flirtations, conceits, fancies, attachments, laments, passions developed and awakening, conquests on which may depend another’s fate or fervor.” The four op. 17 mazurkas were pub- lished while he was in exile in Paris following the unsuccessful November Uprising of 1830–31. Chopin dedicated the score to Lina Freppa, a well-respected voice teacher in Paris. The Ma- zurka in A minor, op. 17, no. 4 (1832–33), which might have been composed as early as August Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin 1824, creates a wistful, ambling impression, ow- ing partly to its tonal instability—a strong A-mi- nor chord does not occur for 20 measures— and slow tempo. The Gazette Musicale de Paris (June 29, 1834) enthusiastically reviewed one of his recitals that featured the op. 17 mazurkas: “It is here that the music reveals itself in all its poetic excellence to a degree to which ordinary speech cannot rise.” Chopin relied on financial support fromwealthy and socially well-situated patrons during the years in Paris, teaching lessons, selling printed music, and giving salon performances. He often recognized their benefaction with dedications of his published scores. Such was the case with Count Louis-Philippe de Perthuis—a military officer in the service of Louis-Philippe I, King of France—to whom Chopin dedicated the op. 24 collection of four mazurkas, composed in 1834–35. Now four years into exile, the Polish pianist-composer coupled his mazurka melody with sophisticated harmonies and a touch of melancholy. Chopin later dedicated the Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, op. 58, to the Countess Emilie de Perthuis, one of his private students. The wealthy and powerful Czartoryski family stood at the center of the expatriate Polish com- munity in Paris. Their private residence—the Hôtel Lambert, previously occupied by Voltaire and the Marquise de Châtelet, his mistress— served as a cultural center. Chopin likely sketched the four op. 30 mazurkas before 1836. When M. Schlesinger published the collection two years later, the score was dedicated to Prin- cess Maria Czartoryska, the former Duchess of Württemberg. As with his other Parisian collec- tions, Chopin shifted the musical and emotional weight toward the final mazurka, a pattern that holds true with the C-sharp minor. Chopin composed the four op. 33 mazurkas between 1837 and 1838. M. Schlesinger pub- lished the set later that year with a dedication to “Mlle la Comtesse Rose Mostowska.” There is Louis François Marteau’s Portrait of Maria née Czartoryski of Württemberg (ca. 1780) a curious connection to the Mostowski family. In April 1829, Chopin’s father Mikołaj applied for a government grant to subsidize his talented son’s study abroad. The application was denied by the Minister of the Interior of the Kingdom of Poland—Tadeuz Mostowski, Rose’s father. Following the November Uprising, Mostowski received permission to move to France, where he inherited family property and resumed his literary activities. Chopin presumably recon- nected with Mostowski in Paris, on friendlier terms, through his youngest daughter Rose. Polonaise in F-sharp minor, op. 44 Spirits ran high within the community of Pol- ish emigrés living in Paris when vague but en- couraging news began to arrive from Poland. Rumors circulated in 1841 that some momen- tous political change would soon occur, allow- ing the displaced Poles to return home. Many intellectuals remained cautious, including Chopin, who wrote to Julian Fontana, “What you are writing me about Poland surprises me. May it be true, but I don’t think so.” The rumored “happening” never transpired, but excitement generated by this gossip heartened nearly every exile. The Polonaise in F-sharp minor, op. 44, orig- inated in this exhilarating year. In this work, Chopin undertook his most complex and inge- nious nationalist composition to date, a merger of two Polish dances—the polonaise and ma- zurka. In another letter to Fontana (August 25, 1841), Chopin categorized his experiment as “a new kind of polonaise, but it is more a fanta- sia.” The dramatic introduction establishes a mood of daring, maintained by several differ- ent polonaise melodies. A mazurka emerges as a gentle, nostalgic trio theme. Chopin com- presses the polonaise material at the end. In his biography of Chopin, Liszt lavished more descriptive attention on the F-sharp mi- nor work than any other single piece discussed in his polonaise chapter. This imaginative mu- sical creation communicated to Liszt in poetic terms, reminding him of the peculiar fanta- sy world of Lord Byron’s “A Dream”: “Dreams in their development have breath, And tears, and tortures, and the touch of Joy; They leave a weight upon our waking thoughts … And look like heralds of Eternity.” SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891–1953) Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, op. 83 The June 22, 1941, Nazi bombing attack against the Soviet Union had a tremendous impact on the Soviet people. Prokofiev embraced the pa- triotic fervor sweeping his country and imme- diately discontinued all current compositional projects to begin a symphonic suite entitled RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 3 – AUGUST 16 , 2026 86