Chopin - Polonaise Op.Posth B.1 No.11 in G minor (Ashkenazy)

Chopin Polonaise Op.Posth B.1 in G minor - Vladimir Ashkenazy In 1817, probably just after the Polonaise in B flat major (although some say just before), a twin work was written: the Polonaise in G minor. One may surmise that it was Fryderyk’s father who took care to have the work published. It was printed by Revd Józef Cybulski, vicar of the parish of the Virgin Mary in the Nowe Miasto district of Warsaw, who was also Elsner’s publisher. On the cover, the Wunderkind’s age was specified (wrongly, as it happens), as well as the name of the person to whom the Polonaise in G minor was dedicated: Lady Wiktoria Skarbek. This Polonaise features a four-bar fanfare lead-in, slightly different to that in the B flat major Polonaise. That is followed by the main dance, in two parts, and a trio (in B flat major). And here we have an echo of repertoire that Chopin had heard elsewhere, with such popular devices as the switching of part of a subject into the bass, combined with an impressive crossing of the hands. Nevertheless, we are left in amazement at this work by a child composer. After care was taken to have the little Fryderyk’s Polonaise published, it was also extended to a review, which appeared in the Pamiętnik Warszawski in January 1818. Warsaw learned that ‘the composer of this Polish dance, a young lad of eight [actually still seven], is the son of Mikołaj Chopin, a teacher of French language and literature at the Warsaw Lyceum, a true musical genius. Not only does he play...