The opening
is portentous and soon becomes a driving whirlwind of tone.
Chopin has never penned a lovelier melody than the one in B--the
middle section of this etude--it is only to be compared to the
one in the same key in the B minor Scherzo, while the return to
the first subject is managed as consummately as in the E flat
minor Scherzo, from op. 35. I confess to being stirred by this B
minor study, with its tempo at a forced draught and with its
precipitous close. There is a lushness about the octave melody;
the tune may be a little overripe, but it is sweet, sensuous
music, and about it hovers the hush of a rich evening in early
autumn.
And now the "Winter Wind"--the study in A minor, op. 25, No. 11.
Here even Von Bulow becomes enthusiastic:
"It must be mentioned as a particular merit of this, the longest
and, in every respect, the grandest of Chopin's studies, that,
while producing the greatest fulness of sound imaginable, it
keeps itself so entirely and utterly unorchestral, and represents
piano music in the most accurate sense of the word.
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