Kullak
does not find in it aught of the fantastic. The languid,
earth-weary voice of the opening and the churchly refrain of the
chorale, is not this fantastic contrast! This nocturne contains in
solution all that Chopin developed later in a nocturne of the same
key. But I think the first stronger--its lines are simpler, more
primitive, its coloring less complicated, yet quite as rich and
gloomy. Of it Chopin said: "After Hamlet," but changed his mind.
"Let them guess for themselves," was his sensible conclusion.
Kullak's programme has a conventional ring. It is the lament for
the beloved one, the lost Lenore, with the consolation of religion
thrown in. The "bell-tones" of the plain chant bring to my mind
little that consoles, although the piece ends in the major mode. It
is like Foe's "Ulalume." A complete and tiny tone poem, Rubinstein
made much of it. In the fourth bar and for three bars there is a
held note F, and I heard the Russian virtuoso, by some miraculous
means, keep this tone prolonged. The tempo is abnormally slow, and
the tone is not in a position where the sustaining pedal can
sensibly help it.
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