'A masterly expression of a great, powerful grief'...'

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jXs4NbFQRQg

"Although Chopin wrote this work in the concise three-part Nocturne form, its spirit is rather that of a Ballade, and it is not reverie but drama which palpitates here in the intention of every note,' the great Chopinist Alfred Cortot wrote in his study edition, asking the performer to 'locate his interpretation at the extreme limit of pathos and visionary feeling.'

For me, the connection runs even deeper. This work was especially meaningful to my late teacher, pianist Pnina Salzman, herself a pupil of Cortot, who traced his teacher-pupil connection right back to Chopin. Playing it takes on a whole new dimension: keeping a direct piece of Chopin’s lineage and Salzman's passion alive.

The journey through this masterpiece takes the listener from the slow and solemn funeral-march like opening, to a heavenly transcendental chorale, soon interrupted by the rebellious shuddering of octaves, which culminate in a highly expressive and anxious return to the original theme, now played in double speed. After its fatal climax, listen to the final solo arpeggio, poetically described by Alfred Cortot as 'the soul imperceptibly leaving the body.'