ExclusiveChopin: Tarantelle, Op. 43

【Classical music and nature 古典音樂小站】Frédéric Chopin: Tarantelle, Op. 43. This beautiful piece was played by Olga Gurevich. It has common licence (Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal) and is provided through musopen.org.

The Tarantella in A-flat major, Op. 43, is a short piano piece in tarantella form, written by Frédéric Chopin in June 1841 and published in October of the same year. It takes approximately three minutes to perform.

It is a moto perpetuo marked presto and requires advanced technique. It was inspired by Gioachino Rossini's song 'La Danza', which is also written in the tarantella's characteristic ⁶/₈ rhythm. Chopin went to great lengths to ensure that the time signature was the same as Rossini's and enlisted the help of his friend, Julian Fontana, to check the best editions of Rossini's work for this detail. There is no evidence that the piece was commissioned or dedicated to anyone.

Robert Schumann described it as being in 'Chopin's most extravagant manner; we see before us the dancer, whirling as if possessed, until our senses reel. To be sure, nobody could call this music lovely, but we willingly forgive the master his wild fantasy. For is he not once in a while permitted to display the dark side of his soul?

Chopin himself said, "I hope I won't write anything as dreadful too soon". Despite this self-criticism, it has become a recording favourite, although it is less frequently performed in recital.

The video was filmed in our Garden in Switzerland by Simone Schlegel and edited by Wenjing Ma.




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