Sonatas

Sonatas. Fryderyk Chopin. , 'Music it is not' , Robert Schumann on the finale of the Sonata in B flat minor, Chopin composed four sonatas over the course of twenty years. They differ in both musical language and forces (the first three are for solo piano, while the last is scored for piano and cello). All of Chopin's sonatas are in four movements, in keeping with the model developed during the Classical era. Chopin treated the Classical framework as a point of departure, lending these works , especially the three mature sonatas , an original character., Chopin's sonatas were often received by contemporary reviewers with a degree of distance. They surprised listeners with their innovation, were regarded as incohesive and too distant from the Classical formal prototype. The epoch-making significance of these works was only appreciated by posterity. The timeless expression which Chopin imparted to the third movement of the Sonata in B flat minor, Op. 35 (Marche funèbre) meant that it acquired in the general awareness the status of an almost independent work. The Sonata in B minor, Op. 58, meanwhile, is perceived as a synthesis of the mature period in the composer's oeuvre.