I always feel, when I play this, is a sense of someone contemplating a love that could have been but sadly never happened....a real sense of loss but flickers of hope .....drowned with further despair.....again if he wrote this at 17 .... incredible ❤
This is my favourite piece of music. The thought that Chopin wrote this at the age of 17 has always troubled me. Even though he was one of the greatest geniouses who ever walked the earth I find it impossible to believe a teenager could write something so mature and monumental, so utterly perfect!
It's amazing. Scriabin did similar. He wrote his etude in c# minor when he was 15 or 16. It's a really sincere piece of music even for composers decades older.
I love love LOVE how you played the piece at a nice, unrushed tempo while still playing with forward motion and fluidity, the left hand notes not becoming static. Very nice!
My favourite Nocturne; probably my favourite piece of music. This is so beautiful, and you are so right. It has something different from the other nocturnes. So magic and enigmatic. The left hand-- I remember my piano teacher saying "the left hand has to be very soft but it should express torment, agony"... for me this nocturne is a picture of Chopin in his late adolescence (16-17 y.o.), a time in the life when you discover the love for the first time but you also somehow fear it. When you are afraid of revealing all your emotions (tension) or the person you love does not understand those (“fight” fortissimo and dissonances), but then you just release your emotions and find moments of peace (major); and there, I imagine a young Chopin being happy and smiling in garden full of flowers and love.
Initially thought forty minutes analysing this Chopin piece would be far too long, but was fascinated by your passion ,insight and expressive playing...it also just happens to be one of my most favourite Chopin pieces... Bravo...
Really enjoyed the analysis. However, this is the music of deep loss. Yet, life goes on in the melody. This was written to memorialize the death of a close family member. The timing almost perfectly matches the death of Chopin's sister, who died at 14. He would have been 17 or 18. Though I agree that the complexity is beyond his other works of his early life, a crushing event can inspire the best from a genius like Chopin. Also, this Nocturne could have been a gift to the memory of his sister that he wasn't willing to continuously play in the parlor to his fans. Thus, unpublished in his lifetime.
Here is what I feel when I play this piece. First it's sadness, then a calm deliberation that leads to anger and despair. To me, the last part was more about acceptance, meaning life goes on. It feels like something tragic has happened and you can feel it throughout this piece. I am a firm believer that this was created when he was 17. His first noctourne.
I started learning this piece a few weeks ago. As a beginner (playing for 1 year now), I keep telling myself that I'm going to learn something new, but I can't break away from Chopin. Above all composers, Chopin's music - especially his nocturnes - are so genuine. The descending thirds sections in each phrase after the pain and tension is genius -- it's like he's dying in small pieces. I played the B major section for hours on Saturday and never get weary. It's stirring - like a small slice of heaven that you only catch glimpses of in dreams. These analysis videos are absolute gold. Thanks for helping to make Chopin's genius accessible to the rest of the world!!!
Thank you Professor Greg! What a (another) great lesson with so much enthusiasm and positive vibes! Chopin lives through your music! My goal is to be able to watch all your lessons on Chopin online. I am so grateful to have found your space here sometime ago! 💫🙏
I learned this piece over 25 years ago when I set my grade 8 exam. I am learning this piece again as I would like to play more and this has always been one of my favourite nocturnes - so many emotions are felt in this one piece. Your analysis of this piece is superb and very helpful to aid my practice. Thank you for sharing
Thank you so much for this wonderful video on my favorite Chopin piece. Wanting to play this myself is what brought me back to the piano after many years. My Parkinson's & arthritis are currently well enough controlled that I am able to play again. Maybe not so well as when I was young, but playing is very satisfying. Your videos give me inspiration.
What a wonderful musical journey in this breathtakingly beautiful nocturne. It takes a polish artist/teacher of this high caliber to guide us. Thank you so much.
Desde mi admiración i respeto Sr Greg N , considero ariesgado adivinar los sentimientos que puede provocar este nocturno . En mis 72 años no he escuchado música más bella i triste al mismo tiempo , una música en la que ves a Chopin a la luz de la luna tosiendo sangre , sentir la muerte i las ganas de vivir , llorando , como el oyente , i protestando por tanta injusticia . También arriesgado valorar la madurez intelectual de un genio aunque tanta tristeza a los 17 años , hace dudar . Discúlpeme si no puedo aceptar la com 35:5535:55 paración con la pintura al ser ésta una plamación subjetiva de la realidad i la música creación pura del pensamiento cuando se posa sobre el sonido . De todas maneras esos 5 min de este nocturno dan para toda una vida . Agradecidísimo por dedicar su valuoso tiempo .
I love your tutorials! So much insight, emotion & understanding of every passage. Your playing is so beautiful and inspiring. I have been listing to Chopin all my life, and now have been playing some nocturnes. Your teaching is my guide!
What a treasure I have found in your channel! Thank you so much for your wonderful analyses and performances of Chopin’s music. If you ever perform in Chicago I will be there. Thank you and keep up the good work!
Since I met your piano lecture not long ago, I have joyful time every day. To listen your playing all Chopin's lead me in the heaven,....Thank you for making videos and sharing your talent.
This music has always given me images of a silent martyrdom and an inner justification coming from other realms. Unique interpretation and lecture !!! Thank you so much, Mo Niemczuk !!!
I really was looking forward to this one! 😃 This nocturne is my favorite posthumous work from chopin. We will never know for sure when he wrote it. The fact that is it a very simple composition compared to most of his late works (like op 62 😍) might lead us to believe that young Chopin wrote it. At the same time, it is such a unique composition, all this really deep melancholy mixed with glitches of light really feels like he could have wrote it by the end of his life. After all, Chopin once said that simplicity is the greatest achievement! 🤷🏼♀️❤️
The recent discovery of Chopin´s waltz really brought me back to his music. Back when i was starting to play piano, I mostly played Chopin´s waltzes, some nocturnes and an etude. As time went on I moved on to other composers music and forgot how beautiful Chopin was, but after hearing and playing the newly discovered waltz, I remembered how great Chopin is. This nocturne must be my favorite piece because the agony and sadness of the music makes it feel so painful for me. I feel like I have collapsed with a hole in my heart listening to it, it´s so tragic, but in a good way. I definitely think this is a late work of Chopin since the music is very mature. Chopins early work still feels mature however, it has a different texture and does not reach the same depth in my heart as this one does. His early work still feels happy and somewhat optimistic, but as time went on, he saw more of life´s struggles, hence the music steadily grows mature in a direction it did, in my opinion, the music leaves an more empty feeling inside me than the earlier pieces. If we compare the newly discovered waltz, it definitely feels mature, but it lacks dissonance, aside from the first measures which feels like late Chopin. The rest of the waltz sounds a little bland with the chords going from tonic to dominant and repeating, which is why i think Chopin never published it, he was never satisfied and therefore did not further compose on it. Op 72. No. 1 is probably a late piece because of the musical maturity it has. Chopin is still a genius and could have gotten a really good idea, but I think it is unlikely since the early pieces feel immature comparing to the later ones. Great analysis!
Great video. I always felt the left hand, particularly in the beginning, was setting the stage for our dream like state, and the voicing from the right hand telling us what was happening in our dream. In the many recordings of the piece I've listened to, many seem to overpower the left hand, and don't quite find that perfect balance this piece demands. To me that overpoweredness diminishes the emotional state of this journey the piece is taking us on. There are times in life we may have the deepest of emotions which we may speak of in but a whisper, and then there are the uncontrollable times when we might lash out in pure anguish. For the pianist, finding and applying that balance of dynamics and articulation is how the work will truly shine. When you gave the analogy of a painting, I felt that was very similar with how I thought about the piece. As for when the piece was written, I'm more on the skeptical side of things, and I too think it was likely a later work. We'll never know. At least it was released and the world can enjoy this true work of art.
Thanks you soo much for this video ❤. I once read that Chopin wrote it at age 17 after his sister died, and that fits very well to what he wrote melodicaly. I‘m 17 now and I‘m trying to complete it before my 18th birthday in May. Wish me luck and i hope you continue these videos.
Hello Greg, I am writing to you again after a few years. It is truly impressive what you can see in Chopin's greatness. The way you analyze this nocturne allows me to interpret it much better. I am not a good pianist, I have never studied piano, but I can play this nocturne (of course with many flaws), but I can do it, and now that I see this analysis it makes it clear to me that I was on the wrong path in a very aggressive interpretation. GREETINGS FROM MEXICO and thank you very much.
Wow for this entire video. This was the first nocturne I could hear well enough to love and practice thanks for bringing it to another level of nuances and interpretations.
I've just found this channel and this great video. I am learning this nocturne right now. This great lesson has for sure shed a light on how to understand, practice and perform this great piece. Thanks for sharing al this information with all of us. Looking forward to watching more videos like this one. Thanks
Dear Grace, thank you so much! It always brings me so much joy when someone new just discover my channel! These videos are a long and exciting journey full of adventures through the Chopin's music.... Enjoy!!! And good luck with the Nocturne!
I've been playing this piece for a couple years, and I would say it is my most favourite of all the pieces I play. Thank you so much for giving me an even deeper understanding of this truly beautiful nocturne. Cheers
SO WONDERFUL AS ALWAYS, MAESTRO!!!!! Thank you for my favourite Chopin's Nocturne in an excellent rendition and for your great analysis/tutorial, again my best regards, have a nice relaxing weekend. Joanna
Thank you for the great analysis and playing Greg! In regards to when this nocturne was written, I would agree that it was written in 1827 when Chopin was 17yrs old. I've played this for years, and a long time ago in a masterclass the American pianist Andre Watts was speaking about this nocturne because it was his favorite (it was also Horrowitz's favorite nocturne) and Mr. Watts said Chopin wrote this composition for his younger sister who died in 1827. She was only 14 years old. That explains the melancholic feel to this piece, and maybe why it was never published is because it was too personal and emotional for Chopin. When it moves from E minor to B major and then later from E minor to E major its almost like him coming to acceptance of his sister's death. Anyways, love all your videos thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this comment. It totally makes sense, but we have no proof of this information whatsoever in any of the sources.. Chopin wrote a funeral March for this sister, and that's for sure. But I'll keep searching the proof!
@@gregniemczukI was about to say the same thing. I'm reading Chopin's extensive biography by Alan Walker and it says that Chopin used to go to a music score shop in Warsaw, and there he got familiar not only with the work of famous contemporary composers from Vienna, Paris and Berlin, but also with John Field's nocturnes, a style he kind of recognized himself in. So he took a dip in that style and this is how Op 72 No 1, his first Nocturne, came into being. The paragraph about his sister's death comes a few pages later and Walker makes no connection between this composition and Emilia's premature passing.
I know I left a comment before but I am just in awe of the piece. Composition wise ist is a masterpiece and it is absolutely perfectly performed. I love the tenderness and dynamics and you played at the absolute perfect tempo. Bravo! ❤❤❤
@@gregniemczuk, could you play and analyze "Chopin - Largo B.109 Op. Posth in E flat major" please sometimes? It's a lovely piece as well but it is not played very often.
Greg I hope you continue these tutorials, I do not believe one could put a material value to these they really are invaluable, not measurable in terms of spirituality and content.
Yesterday I was jamming/improvising with some friends and I came to play a passage in my melody that I really liked. I was so interested in incorporating it into some music that I recorded myself playing it to not forget it. Then the more I heard it, the more it reminded me of something... And here I am, listening to this nocturne and realizing I had played transposed the thirds in 1:04... I don't know, this part touched and touches my soul... Still, such a sad thing when your "best" ones are your best only because you heard them from a mastermind, and they naturally come out from within without you realizing.
12 дней назад
This night seems to illuminate an omen. Perhaps the end. Sadness, joy, in themselves, may not leave footprints to walk on. Chopin turns sadness into a notalgia, into a depth that has not died despite the weather of existence, that in the hands of time takes away the evidence of a victory, that we do not stop longing for, no matter how stormy the night is. ... Chopin illuminates the deep abysses of the soul, in the abysses of life, and sadness ceases to be a state of mind, to become the heroic dignity that will lose the game in this Universe, but will become a memory that life will never forget. . The harbinger of an agony, a sealed end, which, however, raises the heart to the heights of the transcendence of what does not deserve to disappear. Thanks for your analysis, I certainly learned a lot.
@@gregniemczuk Thank you Greg, for the deep vocation that radiates in your very motivating analyses. I discovered the Polish Master stirring records at my dad's disco, when I was 10 years old. And from that moment on, his music is sonorous, incomparable poetry that, in its depths, has inspired and embraced me. I am a Mathematician, Philosopher and writer. And I do not give up the possibility of ever starting to learn piano to play some of his works, just as I can do it. Thanks to you, Greg, again..
Albo to - 28:44 no miód na uszy ... Przykłady sypią się z rękawów obu 🔥 wspaniałe mieć tyle takiej energii w głowie ...... Ja Mam inną ..swoją ...sam próbuje zrozumieć dlaczego ja to pisze choć nie jestem pianistą ... To ewoluuje od ponad 20 lat i coraz bardziej mnie to zaskakuje . Mam w glowie cały koncert .... Pozdrawiam 🔥😎🔥
Is it possible Chopin originally wrote the gist of it when he was 17 but considered it incomplete, then later revised it years later to polish it into its final form? That could explain why its credited as 17yo Chopin yet its so mature emotionally and musically. The distinctive heart-wrenching left hand accompaniment is what I enjoy most about this nocturne. Left hand bar 18 beats 3/4 instead of d #c I prefer e #c.
I really struggle to believe that a seventeen year old could write such an emotional piece, but, we'll never know, and we are here only to enjoy such a brilliant and beautiful piece.
I suppose it's hard to imagine if you don't take some facts of his personality and the era into consideration. Chopin wasn't your average teenager. In general, he wasn't the average at all when it came to emotionality, as countless of his friends, family members and other contemporaries pointed out in many ways. He was an odd, peculiar man with many "eccentricities", well known among his people for being extraordinarily sensitive, a gentle artist, broody, touchy and outrageously imaginative. Some early biographers went as far as to call his hypersensitivity almost abnormal. He instinctively, and with just basic guidance by a teacher, learned to play an instrument so complex that it takes most people decades to master it, as a school boy and played it at concert pianist level by the age of 12, having invented his own technique, while no-one ever seriously drilled him to get there. Yes, I do believe indeed that such an unusual mind and tender soul could compose music as complex and deep as this Nocturne at a young age, most of all when in grief or love-sick. Another factor we underestimate easily today is that people matured earlier in those days than they do nowadays, mentally and emotionally. Life was shorter, people had no time to mess around until 30 before finally become adults. Chopin's early letters (when he was between 16 and 20 yo) sound as grown-up as young people between 25 and 30 sound today, and they are packed with emotional struggle and pondering far beyond what I would expect from the average teeny today. We will never know, though it's totally possible that he composed it as a teenager.
Thank you so much for this wonderful analysis of my second favourite nocturne. Can you please tell me what the piece is that you start playing at 28:45 as an example of a piece in B major? That is so beautiful! I’m so grateful for your videos! God bless you!
Thank you for sharing your beautiful playing . My only critique is for more contrast. Some of the passages required more forte reaching a peak through louder plateau before descending to delicate and gentle, taking us through the tempestuous highs and calm lows more 🙏🧡🧡🧡🧡😊
I loved your interpretation and analysis! It is really helping grasping this piece! How long did this take you to learn? Also, any tips for working on the polyrhythms? I’m fairly new to them and can’t seem to nail the timing. Wonderful video, I really enjoyed it!
I’m a flautist and I love to record this song most because of the emotional depth and I really enjoy playing with myself on 3-4 other treble parts at a time, since I can only play one at a time lol. I always thought this song was very sophisticated. Now I understand why. Thanks for the analysis and beautiful playing ❤
Learning the piece now and finding that this is a wonderfully informative and sensitive interpretation. Very helpful. A listener criticized my very quiet left hand in the beginning, and I couldn’t explain why, just that it seems right to me, so now I have an expert defense. Thank you very much.
Ooooo, I see. For me it's an accompaniment that should be played as soft as possible, so that it's not louder than the notes in the right hand. I don't like performances where the left hand is louder. Usually pianists play like this because they cannot play it softer. Everyone is different and has different taste. Thanks for writing yours here!
Hahahahahahahaha. When I play concerts I never use the score. You can find dozens of videos of me playing from memory. But for making an analysis I need the score. I think you understand. Just find my concert videos please
I am sorry but this kind of remark can come only from someone who does not have a clue. Mr. Niemczuk's presentation on Chopin's work is phenomenal. He is not only playing and analyzing all levels of the composition but at the same time he speaks foreign language. These are three different areas for concentration and processing at the same time. Phenomenal!
I always feel, when I play this, is a sense of someone contemplating a love that could have been but sadly never happened....a real sense of loss but flickers of hope .....drowned with further despair.....again if he wrote this at 17 .... incredible ❤
This is my favourite piece of music. The thought that Chopin wrote this at the age of 17 has always troubled me. Even though he was one of the greatest geniouses who ever walked the earth I find it impossible to believe a teenager could write something so mature and monumental, so utterly perfect!
Yes, I was also shocked!
It's amazing. Scriabin did similar. He wrote his etude in c# minor when he was 15 or 16. It's a really sincere piece of music even for composers decades older.
I love love LOVE how you played the piece at a nice, unrushed tempo while still playing with forward motion and fluidity, the left hand notes not becoming static. Very nice!
My favourite Nocturne; probably my favourite piece of music. This is so beautiful, and you are so right. It has something different from the other nocturnes. So magic and enigmatic. The left hand-- I remember my piano teacher saying "the left hand has to be very soft but it should express torment, agony"... for me this nocturne is a picture of Chopin in his late adolescence (16-17 y.o.), a time in the life when you discover the love for the first time but you also somehow fear it. When you are afraid of revealing all your emotions (tension) or the person you love does not understand those (“fight” fortissimo and dissonances), but then you just release your emotions and find moments of peace (major); and there, I imagine a young Chopin being happy and smiling in garden full of flowers and love.
Thanks for playing the entire nocturne twice. Your interpretation is beautiful. So moving.
Initially thought forty minutes analysing this Chopin piece would be far too long, but was fascinated by your passion ,insight and expressive playing...it also just happens to be one of my most favourite Chopin pieces... Bravo...
Hahahah, well yes... I'm maybe too crazy about Chopin... 😀😀😀
Really enjoyed the analysis. However, this is the music of deep loss. Yet, life goes on in the melody. This was written to memorialize the death of a close family member. The timing almost perfectly matches the death of Chopin's sister, who died at 14. He would have been 17 or 18. Though I agree that the complexity is beyond his other works of his early life, a crushing event can inspire the best from a genius like Chopin. Also, this Nocturne could have been a gift to the memory of his sister that he wasn't willing to continuously play in the parlor to his fans. Thus, unpublished in his lifetime.
Thank you for this enriching comment
Here is what I feel when I play this piece. First it's sadness, then a calm deliberation that leads to anger and despair. To me, the last part was more about acceptance, meaning life goes on. It feels like something tragic has happened and you can feel it throughout this piece. I am a firm believer that this was created when he was 17. His first noctourne.
Yes!
He composed this one after his Sister died
@@furkansahan5826 wow I did not know that
I started learning this piece a few weeks ago. As a beginner (playing for 1 year now), I keep telling myself that I'm going to learn something new, but I can't break away from Chopin. Above all composers, Chopin's music - especially his nocturnes - are so genuine. The descending thirds sections in each phrase after the pain and tension is genius -- it's like he's dying in small pieces. I played the B major section for hours on Saturday and never get weary. It's stirring - like a small slice of heaven that you only catch glimpses of in dreams. These analysis videos are absolute gold. Thanks for helping to make Chopin's genius accessible to the rest of the world!!!
Hi Christopher! Thank you so much for these beautiful words! It's such a lovely description! You're a poet!
Thank you Professor Greg! What a (another) great lesson with so much enthusiasm and positive vibes! Chopin lives through your music! My goal is to be able to watch all your lessons on Chopin online. I am so grateful to have found your space here sometime ago! 💫🙏
Wow. Good luck!!!
@@gregniemczuk Thanks Professor Greg! Though this might take me years but I am happy to make progress!
Thank you, Greg. This is my favorite Chopin nocturne.
your a really inspirational teacher ! 👍
I just begun learning this masterpiece! very enjoyable experience so far
I learned this piece over 25 years ago when I set my grade 8 exam. I am learning this piece again as I would like to play more and this has always been one of my favourite nocturnes - so many emotions are felt in this one piece. Your analysis of this piece is superb and very helpful to aid my practice. Thank you for sharing
Thank you so much for this wonderful video on my favorite Chopin piece. Wanting to play this myself is what brought me back to the piano after many years. My Parkinson's & arthritis are currently well enough controlled that I am able to play again. Maybe not so well as when I was young, but playing is very satisfying. Your videos give me inspiration.
I'm so happy that you can play it despite the difficulties! Good luck!
What a wonderful musical journey in this breathtakingly beautiful nocturne. It takes a polish artist/teacher of this high caliber to guide us. Thank you so much.
Desde mi admiración i respeto Sr Greg N , considero ariesgado adivinar los sentimientos que puede provocar este nocturno . En mis 72 años no he escuchado música más bella i triste al mismo tiempo , una música en la que ves a Chopin a la luz de la luna tosiendo sangre , sentir la muerte i las ganas de vivir , llorando , como el oyente , i protestando por tanta injusticia . También arriesgado valorar la madurez intelectual de un genio aunque tanta tristeza a los 17 años , hace dudar . Discúlpeme si no puedo aceptar la com 35:55 35:55 paración con la pintura al ser ésta una plamación subjetiva de la realidad i la música creación pura del pensamiento cuando se posa sobre el sonido . De todas maneras esos 5 min de este nocturno dan para toda una vida . Agradecidísimo por dedicar su valuoso tiempo .
I love your tutorials! So much insight, emotion & understanding of every passage. Your playing is so beautiful and inspiring. I have been listing to Chopin all my life, and now have been playing some nocturnes. Your teaching is my guide!
Thank you so much for making these videos in English as well as Polish! I really appreciate all the extra time it must take you!
Oh yes...it is like double of the effort. But to make English subtitles would be even more!! So it's much easier to record two times 🌞
What a treasure I have found in your channel! Thank you so much for your wonderful analyses and performances of Chopin’s music. If you ever perform in Chicago I will be there. Thank you and keep up the good work!
Since I met your piano lecture not long ago, I have joyful time every day.
To listen your playing all Chopin's lead me in the heaven,....Thank you for making videos and sharing your talent.
Wonderful!!! Enjoy ! There are around 200 of them in English!!!
This music has always given me images of a silent martyrdom and an inner justification coming from other realms. Unique interpretation and lecture !!! Thank you so much, Mo Niemczuk !!!
This is so beautiful……. I’ve always loved this piece. I am absolutely caught in a trance. Amazing work 😍😍😍
Thanks!!
Very beautiful interpretation! Thank you Greg :)
Thanks!
I really was looking forward to this one! 😃 This nocturne is my favorite posthumous work from chopin. We will never know for sure when he wrote it. The fact that is it a very simple composition compared to most of his late works (like op 62 😍) might lead us to believe that young Chopin wrote it. At the same time, it is such a unique composition, all this really deep melancholy mixed with glitches of light really feels like he could have wrote it by the end of his life. After all, Chopin once said that simplicity is the greatest achievement! 🤷🏼♀️❤️
Yes!!
ive heard many times that this nocturne was composed just after when his sister died when he was 17. But yeah we never know 100% for sure.
The recent discovery of Chopin´s waltz really brought me back to his music. Back when i was starting to play piano, I mostly played Chopin´s waltzes, some nocturnes and an etude. As time went on I moved on to other composers music and forgot how beautiful Chopin was, but after hearing and playing the newly discovered waltz, I remembered how great Chopin is. This nocturne must be my favorite piece because the agony and sadness of the music makes it feel so painful for me. I feel like I have collapsed with a hole in my heart listening to it, it´s so tragic, but in a good way. I definitely think this is a late work of Chopin since the music is very mature. Chopins early work still feels mature however, it has a different texture and does not reach the same depth in my heart as this one does. His early work still feels happy and somewhat optimistic, but as time went on, he saw more of life´s struggles, hence the music steadily grows mature in a direction it did, in my opinion, the music leaves an more empty feeling inside me than the earlier pieces. If we compare the newly discovered waltz, it definitely feels mature, but it lacks dissonance, aside from the first measures which feels like late Chopin. The rest of the waltz sounds a little bland with the chords going from tonic to dominant and repeating, which is why i think Chopin never published it, he was never satisfied and therefore did not further compose on it. Op 72. No. 1 is probably a late piece because of the musical maturity it has. Chopin is still a genius and could have gotten a really good idea, but I think it is unlikely since the early pieces feel immature comparing to the later ones.
Great analysis!
Great video. I always felt the left hand, particularly in the beginning, was setting the stage for our dream like state, and the voicing from the right hand telling us what was happening in our dream. In the many recordings of the piece I've listened to, many seem to overpower the left hand, and don't quite find that perfect balance this piece demands. To me that overpoweredness diminishes the emotional state of this journey the piece is taking us on.
There are times in life we may have the deepest of emotions which we may speak of in but a whisper, and then there are the uncontrollable times when we might lash out in pure anguish. For the pianist, finding and applying that balance of dynamics and articulation is how the work will truly shine. When you gave the analogy of a painting, I felt that was very similar with how I thought about the piece.
As for when the piece was written, I'm more on the skeptical side of things, and I too think it was likely a later work. We'll never know. At least it was released and the world can enjoy this true work of art.
beautiful words
Thanks you soo much for this video ❤. I once read that Chopin wrote it at age 17 after his sister died, and that fits very well to what he wrote melodicaly. I‘m 17 now and I‘m trying to complete it before my 18th birthday in May. Wish me luck and i hope you continue these videos.
Good luck !!!!
I'm sorry I just saw your comment. I hope you are satisfied with this!
@@gregniemczuk hello Greg.
Thank you for replying. I actually finished it and played showed it to my family on my birthday. Thank you very much again.
@@adrianvo9800 wonderful!!!!
Hello Greg, I am writing to you again after a few years. It is truly impressive what you can see in Chopin's greatness. The way you analyze this nocturne allows me to interpret it much better. I am not a good pianist, I have never studied piano, but I can play this nocturne (of course with many flaws), but I can do it, and now that I see this analysis it makes it clear to me that I was on the wrong path in a very aggressive interpretation. GREETINGS FROM MEXICO and thank you very much.
Muchas gracias !!!
Thank you for a wonderful and very satisfying analysis of this beautiful piece of music.
Thank you Mary for watching!
Wow for this entire video. This was the first nocturne I could hear well enough to love and practice thanks for bringing it to another level of nuances and interpretations.
You make me so happy with your comment. Thanks!
I've just found this channel and this great video. I am learning this nocturne right now. This great lesson has for sure shed a light on how to understand, practice and perform this great piece. Thanks for sharing al this information with all of us. Looking forward to watching more videos like this one. Thanks
Dear Grace, thank you so much! It always brings me so much joy when someone new just discover my channel! These videos are a long and exciting journey full of adventures through the Chopin's music.... Enjoy!!!
And good luck with the Nocturne!
I've been playing this piece for a couple years, and I would say it is my most favourite of all the pieces I play. Thank you so much for giving me an even deeper understanding of this truly beautiful nocturne. Cheers
Thank you for watching Andrew! Feel invited to watch my other analyses as well!
Really helpful tutorial, I’m just learning this piece and find your insights and analysis illuminating. Plus I love your playing!!
SO WONDERFUL AS ALWAYS, MAESTRO!!!!! Thank you for my favourite Chopin's Nocturne in an excellent rendition and for your great analysis/tutorial, again my best regards, have a nice relaxing weekend. Joanna
Thank you for the great analysis and playing Greg! In regards to when this nocturne was written, I would agree that it was written in 1827 when Chopin was 17yrs old. I've played this for years, and a long time ago in a masterclass the American pianist Andre Watts was speaking about this nocturne because it was his favorite (it was also Horrowitz's favorite nocturne) and Mr. Watts said Chopin wrote this composition for his younger sister who died in 1827. She was only 14 years old. That explains the melancholic feel to this piece, and maybe why it was never published is because it was too personal and emotional for Chopin. When it moves from E minor to B major and then later from E minor to E major its almost like him coming to acceptance of his sister's death. Anyways, love all your videos thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this comment. It totally makes sense, but we have no proof of this information whatsoever in any of the sources.. Chopin wrote a funeral March for this sister, and that's for sure. But I'll keep searching the proof!
@@gregniemczukI was about to say the same thing. I'm reading Chopin's extensive biography by Alan Walker and it says that Chopin used to go to a music score shop in Warsaw, and there he got familiar not only with the work of famous contemporary composers from Vienna, Paris and Berlin, but also with John Field's nocturnes, a style he kind of recognized himself in. So he took a dip in that style and this is how Op 72 No 1, his first Nocturne, came into being.
The paragraph about his sister's death comes a few pages later and Walker makes no connection between this composition and Emilia's premature passing.
I know I left a comment before but I am just in awe of the piece. Composition wise ist is a masterpiece and it is absolutely perfectly performed. I love the tenderness and dynamics and you played at the absolute perfect tempo. Bravo! ❤❤❤
Thank you!!! I appreciate it
@@gregniemczuk, could you play and analyze "Chopin - Largo B.109 Op. Posth in E flat major" please sometimes? It's a lovely piece as well but it is not played very often.
beautiful interpretation and beautiful analysis (rich in references): both excellent.
Love your tutorials and beautifully played.
You made me (re)discover this piece that I am sutying now. Thank you for that.
Another deeply informing lecture! Thank you Greg
Thank you Ed!
Greg I hope you continue these tutorials, I do not believe one could put a material value to these they really are invaluable, not measurable in terms of spirituality and content.
Thank you so much!!! Yes, I plan to do it. Next will be Mozart Piano Sonatas!
@@gregniemczuk awesome...how can you out-do yourself on your exquisite Chopin series!!!
Yesterday I was jamming/improvising with some friends and I came to play a passage in my melody that I really liked. I was so interested in incorporating it into some music that I recorded myself playing it to not forget it. Then the more I heard it, the more it reminded me of something... And here I am, listening to this nocturne and realizing I had played transposed the thirds in 1:04... I don't know, this part touched and touches my soul... Still, such a sad thing when your "best" ones are your best only because you heard them from a mastermind, and they naturally come out from within without you realizing.
This night seems to illuminate an omen. Perhaps the end. Sadness, joy, in themselves, may not leave footprints to walk on. Chopin turns sadness into a notalgia, into a depth that has not died despite the weather of existence, that in the hands of time takes away the evidence of a victory, that we do not stop longing for, no matter how stormy the night is. ... Chopin illuminates the deep abysses of the soul, in the abysses of life, and sadness ceases to be a state of mind, to become the heroic dignity that will lose the game in this Universe, but will become a memory that life will never forget. . The harbinger of an agony, a sealed end, which, however, raises the heart to the heights of the transcendence of what does not deserve to disappear. Thanks for your analysis, I certainly learned a lot.
Beautiful description and comment. Thank you!
@@gregniemczuk Thank you Greg, for the deep vocation that radiates in your very motivating analyses.
I discovered the Polish Master stirring records at my dad's disco, when I was 10 years old. And from that moment on, his music is sonorous, incomparable poetry that, in its depths, has inspired and embraced me.
I am a Mathematician, Philosopher and writer.
And I do not give up the possibility of ever starting to learn piano to play some of his works, just as I can do it.
Thanks to you, Greg, again..
Albo to - 28:44 no miód na uszy ... Przykłady sypią się z rękawów obu 🔥 wspaniałe mieć tyle takiej energii w głowie ...... Ja Mam inną ..swoją ...sam próbuje zrozumieć dlaczego ja to pisze choć nie jestem pianistą ... To ewoluuje od ponad 20 lat i coraz bardziej mnie to zaskakuje . Mam w glowie cały koncert .... Pozdrawiam 🔥😎🔥
Estou tocando este noturno e essa aula realmente foi muito bem-vinda! Adorei! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I love this so much ❤
Thank you!
Well done. Very inspiring. Thank you.
Thank k you for watching
Awesome video love to hear the lore about music 🙂
Is it possible Chopin originally wrote the gist of it when he was 17 but considered it incomplete, then later revised it years later to polish it into its final form? That could explain why its credited as 17yo Chopin yet its so mature emotionally and musically. The distinctive heart-wrenching left hand accompaniment is what I enjoy most about this nocturne. Left hand bar 18 beats 3/4 instead of d #c I prefer e #c.
I guess we will never know....but it makes sense!
Maravillosa música 😍💖
Very good performance, I liked it very much!!! 👏
Thank you! I appreciate it!
Very nice interpretation! Listening with a mellow glass of Chardonnay.
Lovely!!
I really struggle to believe that a seventeen year old could write such an emotional piece, but, we'll never know, and we are here only to enjoy such a brilliant and beautiful piece.
Yes me too!!! We're not 100% sure... And we'll never know. But I also think he must have been older!
It’s crazy isn’t it? That’s why he’s a genius. One of a kind. 🎉
I suppose it's hard to imagine if you don't take some facts of his personality and the era into consideration. Chopin wasn't your average teenager. In general, he wasn't the average at all when it came to emotionality, as countless of his friends, family members and other contemporaries pointed out in many ways. He was an odd, peculiar man with many "eccentricities", well known among his people for being extraordinarily sensitive, a gentle artist, broody, touchy and outrageously imaginative. Some early biographers went as far as to call his hypersensitivity almost abnormal. He instinctively, and with just basic guidance by a teacher, learned to play an instrument so complex that it takes most people decades to master it, as a school boy and played it at concert pianist level by the age of 12, having invented his own technique, while no-one ever seriously drilled him to get there. Yes, I do believe indeed that such an unusual mind and tender soul could compose music as complex and deep as this Nocturne at a young age, most of all when in grief or love-sick.
Another factor we underestimate easily today is that people matured earlier in those days than they do nowadays, mentally and emotionally. Life was shorter, people had no time to mess around until 30 before finally become adults. Chopin's early letters (when he was between 16 and 20 yo) sound as grown-up as young people between 25 and 30 sound today, and they are packed with emotional struggle and pondering far beyond what I would expect from the average teeny today.
We will never know, though it's totally possible that he composed it as a teenager.
Thank you so much for this wonderful analysis of my second favourite nocturne. Can you please tell me what the piece is that you start playing at 28:45 as an example of a piece in B major? That is so beautiful! I’m so grateful for your videos! God bless you!
Thank you for sharing your beautiful playing . My only critique is for more contrast. Some of the passages required more forte reaching a peak through louder plateau before descending to delicate and gentle, taking us through the tempestuous highs and calm lows more 🙏🧡🧡🧡🧡😊
Thank you very much!!!! 😊😊😊
Yes, it absolutely makes sense and I agree
I loved your interpretation and analysis! It is really helping grasping this piece! How long did this take you to learn? Also, any tips for working on the polyrhythms? I’m fairly new to them and can’t seem to nail the timing. Wonderful video, I really enjoyed it!
14:09 to jet sedno muzyki.. pięknie Pan to ujął ...
Dziękuję!
Wonderful interpretation!
Excelent piano sound?
What this piano?
Bechstein; Bosendorfer; Stenway; Petrof; Fazioli?
KAWAI! Thank you so much!
I’m a flautist and I love to record this song most because of the emotional depth and I really enjoy playing with myself on 3-4 other treble parts at a time, since I can only play one at a time lol. I always thought this song was very sophisticated. Now I understand why. Thanks for the analysis and beautiful playing ❤
That's wonderful!!! Thanks for watching and for the comment!
You're so beautiful 😍.
@@gregniemczuk lol thanks
@@531brlee You're welcome. So inspiring
Learning the piece now and finding that this is a wonderfully informative and sensitive interpretation. Very helpful. A listener criticized my very quiet left hand in the beginning, and I couldn’t explain why, just that it seems right to me, so now I have an expert defense. Thank you very much.
Yes!!! It must be!
Hey Greg, from which piece is the D major example you use at 28m45s? Regards, Björn from Belgium.
Hi Björn! B major: it was the third movement of his 3rd Sonata! And after the second theme of the same Sonata, 1st movement
Is there a video of this in polish?
Yes. Nokturn e moll op.posth
@@gregniemczuk dzięki!
The only problem I have with this is the left hand isn't played loudly enough and it's the part that makes it haunting.
Ooooo, I see. For me it's an accompaniment that should be played as soft as possible, so that it's not louder than the notes in the right hand. I don't like performances where the left hand is louder. Usually pianists play like this because they cannot play it softer.
Everyone is different and has different taste. Thanks for writing yours here!
made me realize how bad my understanding of this piece was after playing it for 4 months
I hope you like the new perspective better!
I didn't know Saul Goodman could play piano
Interesting. I was just watching a video of Tiffany Poon playing another Chopin piece. And SHE HAS NO SCORE IN FRONT OF HER!
Hahahahahahahaha. When I play concerts I never use the score. You can find dozens of videos of me playing from memory. But for making an analysis I need the score. I think you understand. Just find my concert videos please
I am sorry but this kind of remark can come only from someone who does not have a clue. Mr. Niemczuk's presentation on Chopin's work is phenomenal. He is not only playing and analyzing all levels of the composition but at the same time he speaks foreign language. These are three different areas for concentration and processing at the same time. Phenomenal!