Niecks, writing of the G major Nocturne, adjures us "not to tarry
too long in the treacherous atmosphere of this Capua--it
bewitches and unmans." Kleczynski calls the one in G minor
"homesickness," while the celebrated Nocturne in C minor "is the
tale of a still greater grief told in an agitated recitando;
celestial harps"--ah! I hear the squeak of the old romantic
machinery--"come to bring one ray of hope, which is powerless in
its endeavor to calm the wounded soul, which...sends forth to
heaven a cry of deepest anguish." It doubtless has its despairing
movement, this same Nocturne in C minor, op. 48, No. I, but
Karasowski is nearer right when he calls it "broad and most
imposing with its powerful intermediate movement, a thorough
departure from the nocturne style." Willeby finds it "sickly and
labored," and even Niecks does not think it should occupy a
foremost place among its companions. The ineluctable fact remains
that this is the noblest nocturne of them all. Biggest in
conception it seems a miniature music drama. It requires the
grand manner to read it adequately, and the doppio movemento is
exciting to a dramatic degree.
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