I fully agree with Kullak that too
strict adherence to the marking of this section produces the
effect of an "inartistic precipitation" which robs the movement
of clarity. Kleczynski calls the work The Contrition of a Sinner
and devotes several pages to its elucidation. De Lenz chats most
entertainingly with Tausig about it. Indeed, an imposing march of
splendor is the second subject in C. A fitting pendant is this
work to the C sharp minor Nocturne. Both have the heroic quality,
both are free from mawkishness and are of the greater Chopin, the
Chopin of the mode masculine.
Niecks makes a valuable suggestion: "In playing these nocturnes--
op. 48--there occurred to me a remark of Schumann's, when he
reviewed some nocturnes by Count Wielhorski. He said that the
quick middle movements which Chopin frequently introduced into
his nocturnes are often weaker than his first conceptions;
meaning the first portions of his nocturnes. Now, although the
middle part in the present instances are, on the contrary, slower
movements, yet the judgment holds good; at least with respect to
the first nocturne, the middle part of which has nothing to
recommend it but a full, sonorous instrumentation, if I may use
this word in speaking of one instrument.
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