Compare performersFrédéric Chopin
Chopin, Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2: Lévy and Prati
Nocturne in E♭ major, Op. 9 No. 2
Lévy and Prati play the melody as its ornaments grow more elaborate at each return.
Recordings in
this comparison
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Frank Lévy
A pupil of Maria Tipo and Leon Fleisher, Lévy made this recording for Musopen’s Chopin project.
Patrizia Prati
Prati recorded twelve Chopin nocturnes at Madrid’s Museum of Romanticism on 24 November 2015.
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Frank Lévy and Patrizia Prati play the piece. It begins with a leap from B♭ to G over the left hand’s rocking bass and chords. Each time the melody returns it carries more ornaments, and a short cadenza follows.
Tempo map
Time taken compared with Frank Lévy, c. 2014: above 1×, the performer takes longer over the same music; below it, less time.
- Frank Lévy, c. 2014 · reference
- Patrizia Prati, 2015
Passages compared
Each version plays in card order, for up to 12 seconds of reference music or until the next marked passage, whichever comes first.
- 01
Melody and accompaniment
0:05 in the referenceThe melody lies above the left hand’s recurring bass note and the two chords that follow it.
- 02
Cadence in E♭
0:30 in the referenceA leap into the treble is followed by a falling run; the phrase returns to E♭.
- 03
Trill on a held note
0:55 in the referenceA trill is played on a held note before the melody continues its descent. The left hand keeps the same rocking pattern.
- 04
Ornamented return of the melody
1:35 in the referenceThe tune returns with small, quick notes wound around its longer ones. The bass repeats its earlier pattern.
- 05
Melody in paired notes
2:25 in the referenceThe right-hand melody is played in paired notes, then short, detached chords lead to its next return.
- 06
Rise in octaves before cadenza
3:35 in the referenceThe right hand climbs into octaves and the music grows louder shortly before the cadenza.
- 07
E♭ chords after the cadenza
4:10 in the referenceAfter the cadenza, quiet arpeggiated E♭ major chords bring back the pulse and lead to the soft close.
Length of each recording
- Frank Lévy, c. 20144:31
- Patrizia Prati, 20155:02
These times include the lead-in and final fade. Cuts, repeats and disc-side breaks also affect a recording’s length.
Recording notes
Frank Lévy, c. 2014
A pupil of Maria Tipo and Leon Fleisher, Lévy made this recording for Musopen’s Chopin project.
Frank Lévy, piano
c. 2014
Patrizia Prati, 2015
Prati recorded twelve Chopin nocturnes at Madrid’s Museum of Romanticism on 24 November 2015.
Patrizia Prati, piano
24 November 2015, Museum of Romanticism, Madrid
Further reading
- Lévy — Musopen recording; date approximate
- Prati — museum recording, 24 November 2015
- Mieczysław Tomaszewski — the nocturne’s theme and changing ornaments
- Chopin — Op. 9 No. 2, Schirmer edition (1881), transcribed by Mutopia
- Frank Lévy — teachers and Musopen Chopin project
- Rubén Ojeda — Prati’s fourteen-piece museum session, recorded without an audience
How the recordings are matched
The matching follows sequences of pitches, using a method called dynamic time warping. Every recording is mapped to the reference, so switching between two versions goes through that shared clock. Where several reference times match one point, the middle time is used.
- Patrizia Prati, 2015: match score 0.941. Matched passages available.
Switching stays within the matched span, and trimmed recordings keep their original clock times. Match scores describe similarity in the sound.