Frederic Chopin's Scherzo in C-Sharp minor, Op. 39

It has been a busy week at work, but when a faculty colleague suggested I tag along to an on-campus student recital, I decided to forego the pajama-clad TV evening I had previously planned. These would be scholarship winners performing from the Bucks County Community College School of Music, both jazz and classical. The program included Vivaldi, Vaughan Williams, Mozart, Jobim, and two of my special favorites, Amy Beach and Frederic Chopin. 

We were in attendance to hear my friend's student, Zau Grin Wawhkyung, play Chopin's Scherzo in C# minor, Op. 39. While all of the performances were quite masterful, this Chopin piece was, for me, the most impressive. My non-virtuosic, non-competent experience with placing my fingers on piano keys has taught me to be in awe of fine players who not only master complex combinations of notes, but also play them from memory. Play this part loud, use the middle pedal for these 3.6 seconds, play this part softly, bring out the middle voice in this section...the performer is using every part of their brain to make that music happen, and in the case of Chopin's Scherzo in C# minor, Op. 39, will not lose concentration for just over seven minutes. I've attended hundreds of recitals and concerts, and I'm still fascinated by the concentration required to perform a piece like this.

Frederic Chopin

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) dedicated this piece to his student, Adolf Gutmann, who I've read was not the best pianist but was a special favorite of Chopin's because his large hands allowed him to play forcefully the big left-hand chord in the sixth measure which comes back again. Chopin and I have small hands and would be forced to arpeggio that chord, meaning play the notes in quick succession rather than all at once. Chopin and I wouldn't be able to reach all of those notes at the same second. (I never mastered that technique, but Chopin must have.) Gutmann and Wawhkyung managed that big chord, and in fact, Chopin had his student Gutmann premiere the Opus 39 for his friends so that they could hear how it was supposed to sound. If you are the type of listener who would enjoy an almost measure-by-measure analysis of this piece, check out the essay I was reading: https://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/composition/detail/id/97.


The Scherzo in C# minor, Op. 39, was composed in part on the

George Sand

island of Mallorca where he and his partner, the writer George Sand (real name Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin), lived during the winter of 1838-1839. Chopin battled tuberculosis, and the climate was supposed to be good for him. He was miserable, though, because he felt awful and his piano took forever getting to the island, and then was caught up in customs until George Sand paid a large sum of money to get it out. Since the couple was not married and had a couple of her kids with them, they had a hard time finding a place to stay. Ultimately, they resided at a privately-owned monastery in Valldemossa, living in a suite of former monks' cells. This was a productive time for the couple: she wrote a book called A Winter in Mallorca and he composed some of his famous preludes and part of the Opus 39 Scherzo. He was sick most of the time in spite of the weather, and they found their way from Mallorca to Marseilles in France where he finished the Scherzo.

From what I read in my travel literature, Mallorca has some Chopin/Sand points of interest and a museum ready for me when I eventually get there. Descendants of the family who bought Chopin's Pleyel piano when the couple left the island are partially responsible for keeping the Chopin/Sand stories alive there, and pushing the destination to the top of my travel bucket list.

This is the monastery in Mallorca where Chopin and Sand stayed

By this time you may be interested in hearing this Scherzo from Mallorca. I hope you are. I don't have a video of virtuosic student Zau Grin Wawhkyung performing it, but I can fix you up with an Arthur Rubinstein video. Listen for the high cascading notes interspersed throughout. They give the piece a magical feel, don't you think? (And don't miss the Chopin portrait on the wall!)