Nocturne, Op. 15 No. 2

1. 0:00
   Opening melody, upbeat and bars 1–⁠2

   The melody begins with an upbeat from A♯ to B, then falls through the notes of a C♯ chord. The left hand holds a low C♯ in bar 1 and moves to F♯ in bar 2.

2. 0:26
   Dedication to Ferdinand Hiller

   Chopin dedicated the three nocturnes of Op. 15, published in 1833–⁠34, to the German pianist Ferdinand Hiller. In a joint letter to Hiller of 20 June 1833 he wrote that Liszt was at that moment playing his études, “transporting me outside of my respectable thoughts”.

3. 0:52
   Counter-theme in F♯ minor

   A second theme in F♯ minor follows the opening melody. Its phrases rise into the upper register, then descend in short runs marked dolcissimo, very sweetly. The bass keeps moving under the long upper notes.

4. 1:26
   Doppio movimento, bars 25–⁠32

   At bar 25 the tempo doubles (doppio movimento), and the piano stays sotto voce. In the same hand a dotted melody sounds above quick notes, while the bass leaps below.

5. 2:12
   Return of the Larghetto theme

   At bars 47–⁠52 the quick figures slow, molto rallentando and smorzando, and move down towards the middle of the keyboard. After a pause, a Tempo, the opening A♯–B turn returns. The Larghetto melody is repeated with added ornaments in small notes.

6. 2:48
   Luke Faulkner’s training

   Faulkner studied piano and composition at Chetham’s, then music at Oxford, then screen composition at Edinburgh. He graduated from Edinburgh in 2014, having studied recording and engineering as well as writing music for film.

Joins

1. 1:26
   Dominant seventh on C♯ at doppio movimento

   The slow section ends on repeated A♯s. The bass then moves to C♯, with E♯, G♯ and B above it, which makes a dominant seventh. Chopin marks the new passage doppio movimento and sotto voce. The right hand now plays a dotted tune with quick notes beneath it, and the left hand makes wide jumps.

2. 2:12
   A pause, then A♯–B

   Over a low C♯ the repeated figures slow and die away, marked molto rallentando, smorzando. The bass stops, and a pause separates the last figure from the A♯–B upbeat of the opening. Marked a Tempo, the melody returns over C♯ and reaches the F♯ in the bass in the following bar.

1. 0:00
   Opening melody and accompaniment

   Chopin’s melody moves through quick ornaments while the left hand plays bass notes and chords beneath it. Paderewski’s playing often separates the attacks of the two hands and spreads chords, so that the melody sounds before or after its accompaniment.

2. 0:56
   Victor recording, New York, 1917

   On 14 May 1917 Paderewski recorded this nocturne for Victor in New York, and the company issued the first take. He returned on 18 June to record Chopin’s G♭ major Butterfly Étude.

3. 1:36
   Central section, bars 25–⁠40

   The central passage (bars 25–⁠40) begins sotto voce, with a dotted tune set among quick accompanying notes. Chopin asks for twice the motion. The left hand leaps and the dotted patterns continue as the passage builds to the central climax.

4. 2:24
   Return of the opening theme

   The repeated figures slow and descend. After a pause, A♯ rises to B, the turn that opens the nocturne. The theme returns with its original outline, and Chopin adds new ornaments to it.

5. 3:08
   Paderewski on rubato, 1909

   In his 1909 essay on rubato, Paderewski mocked the rule that time borrowed from one phrase must be repaid in another. “What is lost is lost,” he wrote. “For any lawlessness there is, after a certain term, proscription.”

Joins

1. 1:36
   The bass turns to C♯

   The slow section has repeated A♯s. A C♯ bass begins the middle section and supports a dominant seventh with E♯, G♯ and B. At Doppio movimento the motion doubles, and the right hand plays both a dotted tune and quick notes beneath it. The opening of the passage is marked sotto voce.

2. 2:24
   Return of the opening tune

   In bars 47–⁠50 of the Breitkopf & Härtel first edition, Chopin writes molto rallentando, smorzando over repeated figures above a low C♯. The left hand then stops. After a pause, A♯ and B lead into the opening tune at its first tempo, and the bass moves from C♯ to F♯ beneath it.

1. 0:00
   Opening melody, bars 1–⁠4

   The melody begins on A♯ and rises briefly to B before descending. The left hand moves from a low bass note to chords near the tune. Chopin marks the opening sostenuto.

2. 0:28
   D’Albert in Weimar, 1882

   In 1882 d’Albert went to Weimar to study with Liszt. In a letter of 14/26 July 1884 to Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky described the young pianist, whom he had heard in Moscow, as “the legitimate successor of Rubinstein”, meaning Anton Rubinstein.

3. 1:28
   Middle section, doppio movimento

   The middle section doubles the tempo. Inside the right hand, quick notes run beneath a dotted melody, and the left hand leaps between widely spaced notes. The section opens sotto voce and then grows louder.

4. 2:04
   Return to the opening tempo

   In bars 47–⁠52 the repeated figures slow and fade, marked molto rallentando and smorzando. After a pause, the A♯–B turn returns a tempo.

5. 2:52
   Kempff on d’Albert’s playing

   In his memoir Unter dem Zimbelstern, Wilhelm Kempff recalled d’Albert’s hand hovering over an A♯. To Kempff the fading note trembled like a human voice. When the passage returned, he heard a new sound from the same black key.

Joins

1. 1:28
   A new tune over C♯

   The A♯s held at the end of the slow section lead into a C♯ bass. E♯, G♯ and B fill out a dominant seventh above it. The marking changes to doppio movimento, with sotto voce beneath the right hand, which now plays both a dotted melody and quick accompanying notes.

2. 2:04
   The left hand stops before the reprise

   A deep C♯ in the bass supports the last repeated figures, marked molto rallentando, smorzando. The left hand then stops. After a pause comes the A♯–B upbeat of the returning melody. C♯ returns in the bass, and F♯ follows in the next bar. The first tempo is restored.

1. 0:00
   Opening, left-hand accompaniment

   The left hand plays a repeated figure of low bass, higher note, chord and higher note again. Above it, the right-hand melody holds long notes and moves into quick flourishes. The opening marking is sostenuto, sustained.

2. 1:26
   Doppio movimento section

   The right hand plays a dotted melody with a busy line underneath it, and the left hand jumps below both. Doppio movimento doubles the pace. The marking sotto voce asks for a subdued beginning.

3. 2:20
   Return of the Larghetto

   The quick figures slow and thin out. After a pause, the opening melody returns at its first tempo. Chopin writes new ornaments into the reprise, and runs of small notes descend to the final F♯.

4. 2:46
   Moonlight Sonata, film, 1937

   In February 1937 Moonlight Sonata brought Paderewski into British cinemas. He played himself in a romance involving a forced landing and a Swedish baroness. The camera also stayed on him at the piano for Beethoven’s slow movement and his own Minuet.

5. 3:16
   Closing descent, bars 60–⁠62

   Groups of small notes run down through the F♯ harmony. Chopin marks the final descent smorzando (dying away). The bass ends on a low F♯, with A♯ held above it.

1. 0:00
   Upbeat and opening phrase

   Two quick notes, A♯ and B, form the upbeat to the melody. The phrase falls, rests on repeated C♯s, then rises in a flourish. Chopin keeps adding new short runs to the tune, which remains easy to recognise.

2. 1:00
   Museum of Romanticism recording, 2015

   Prati recorded at the Museum of Romanticism on 24 November 2015 without an audience, because coughing and mobile phones had ruined a first concert there. She gave the recordings, twelve Chopin nocturnes among them, to Wikimedia Spain.

3. 1:30
   Middle section over C♯ bass

   The quick middle section, marked doppio movimento, begins in bar 25 over a C♯ bass. The right hand plays a dotted melody above a running accompaniment, both sotto voce. The bass makes wide leaps.

4. 2:16
   Return of the opening theme

   The middle section ends in repeated figures that slow and die away. A pause separates them from the A♯–B upbeat, which returns. The melody comes back in the first tempo with new ornaments.

5. 3:14
   Closing flourishes in F♯ major

   The closing flourishes descend through the notes of F♯ major. The marking smorzando directs the piano to die away, and the final low F♯ comes at the bottom of the decoration.