So much for
an attempt at strict devotion to scholastic form.
From this schoolroom we are transported in op. 35 to the theatre
of larger life and passion. The B flat minor Sonata was published
May, 1840. Two movements are masterpieces; the funeral march that
forms the third movement is one of the Pole's most popular
compositions, while the finale has no parallel in piano music.
Schumann says that Chopin here "bound together four of his
maddest children," and he is not astray. He thinks the march does
not belong to the work. It certainly was written before its
companion movements. As much as Hadow admires the first two
movements, he groans at the last pair, though they are admirable
when considered separately.
These four movements have no common life. Chopin says he intended
the strange finale as a gossiping commentary on the march. "The
left hand unisono with the right hand are gossiping after the
march." Perhaps the last two movements do hold together, but what
have they in common with the first two? Tonality proves nothing.
Notwithstanding the grandeur and beauty of the grave, the power
and passion of the scherzo, this Sonata in B flat minor is not
more a sonata than it is a sequence of ballades and scherzi.
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