Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. (Chopin)

Frédéric Chopin composed the piece shortly after arriving in Vienna in 1830. He sent it to his older sister Ludwika Chopin with the dedication, "For my sister Ludwika to practise before she takes on my second Concerto". Ludwika's catalogued it as a "Lento, of a nocturne character".^[1][2]

The November Uprising in Poland occurred shortly after Chopin arrived in Vienna. The piece is sometimes seen as a reflection of the composer's homesickness and isolation after learning of the revolt. The title Reminiscence or Reminiscence Nocturne is associated with this interpretation of the music.^[3] The humor of the work leads some to believe it was written before Chopin learned of the violence back home.^[1]

During his life, Chopin published 18 nocturnes under eight opus numbers.^[4] Chopin biographer Marceli Antoni Szulc came across the manuscript in 1875 and persuaded Jarosław Leitgeber to publish it. The score was titled Adagio. Ludwika's taxonomy eventually became the standard, and the piece is classed as a nocturne.^[3] Its most common title derives from the tempo marking Lento con gran espressione.^[5]

Mily Balakirev premiered the piece on October 17, 1894, 45 years after Chopin's death. The performance celebrated the unveiling of a monument to the composer in his birthplace, Żelazowa Wola.^[3]

The manuscript is housed at the Valldemossa Charterhouse in Spain. It is part of the Anne-Marie Boutroux de Ferrà Collection.^[6][7]

The score is highly autobiographical with several quotations from Chopin's other compositions.^[3] After a quiet introduction, the main theme starts at bar 5. The left hand slurs arpeggios throughout the section.

As Chopin hinted in his dedication, the middle section rehearses fragments from his Piano Concerto No. 2, which was composed a year earlier. He begins in bars 21 and 22 by quoting the main theme of the concerto's third movement. The melody is originally in ³
₄, and Chopin notated it that way in his manuscript, while maintaining the common time in the left hand's accompaniment. He consolidated the time signatures in an 1836 revision.^[3]

In bars 23–4, Chopin articulates the second subject of the piano concerto's first movement. In bar 30, he recalls the music of his song "Życzenie" (A Maiden's wish, 1829). He returns to the piano concerto's third movement and quotes its "village dance" scherzando, a clear evocation of his home country.^[3] The composer's nostalgia dissipates through a broken chord which evokes the conclusion of the piano concerto's second movement.^[9] The Nocturne's original theme returns before the piece concludes with a C♯ major chord.

On September 23, 1939, Polish-Jewish pianist Władysław Szpilman's performance of Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor, which was being broadcast live on Polskie Radio, was interrupted by the German invasion of Warsaw. Later, during the final months of World War II, German army officer Wilm Hosenfeld discovered Szpilman hiding in an abandoned house in the Warsaw Ghetto, which had been destroyed during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. When Szpilman described himself as a pianist, Hosenfeld asked him to play something on the house's grand piano. Szpilman chose to play the Nocturne in C-sharp minor, after which Hosenfeld protected Szpilman and gave him food to survive.^[10]

At the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, Nazi commandant Amon Goeth ordered the imprisoned Jewish pianist Natalia Karp to perform for his birthday. She chose Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor because it was melancholy enough to describe her feelings. She played so well that Goeth spared her life, and that of her sister.^[11][12]

In 2002, director Roman Polanski dramatized the radio station's final live broadcast in The Pianist, which was based on Szpilman's memoirs; however, he changed the piece that was played to Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23.