I would like to see, the opinions of many: just for fun and for ideas of which piece i should learn next

My personal favorites are his 4th ballade, 2nd impromptu, 1st ballade, and polonaise 53. The last two are probably my favourites because i play them, as tends to happen hahaha. Anyway to avoid bias I'd say my favourite piece altogether by chopin is the 4th ballade, except i prefer the coda of the first ballade. I also think the 2nd Impromptu is awesome-I'm not sure there is a recording on this site-if someone knows the piece please put a recording up-i only have a few of this piece!. I may learn that...mmmm-How difficult is it?

I only included the more popular large scale works of Chopin, for any who are missing there favourites (which is more than likely)

ofcourse the first ballade simpely mindblowing I love it .

FIRST Ballade without a doubt.

First Ballade

1 Scherzo. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

1st Ballade

A close run between ballade 1 and 4 but I choosed 4.

Ha! I just said I hate picking favorites when it comes to Chopin, and here I go voting again.

I picked the 4th Ballade because I only recently fell in love with it - within the last year. I was raised listening to the 1st and the 3rd Ballades, and I love both of them (though the 1st more), and I was introduced to the 2nd Ballade in high school, and fell in love with it, too.

I'm not sure what had turned me off about the 4th Ballade before...I think it was perhaps the simplicity of the opening 7 bars, though it sounds stupid to say it now. The main theme is beautiful, and more beautiful in each of its variations...and when the theme of the opening 7 bars comes back in the middle, it's downright profound.

Anyway, I love all of the pieces on that list. I wouldn't say that the 2nd Impromptu is my favorite Impromptu, but I am familiar with it. If it's for solo piano by Chopin, I am familiar with it - and the Concertos, too...but sadly, I don't have recordings of the Concertos. I had them once, but I don't know what happened to them, and I don't have them on my computer. I have recordings of all the solo works, though, including the posthumous ones.

4th Ballade. The other masterworks are IMHO Polonaise-Fantaisie, 3d Sonate and Barcarolle.

Sandro.

And the Allegro de Concert!

Oh, I forgot about the Barcarolle. I love that one too. I got it about three-quarters-of-the-way learned some time ago. Same with the Bolero. I really should get back to them someday.

I'm editing this a couple hours later, because I just played through the nocturne 27/2 and it is the most beautiful piece of music I have ever heard. I just love it.

Hmmmm.... I played through that one again last week, after not having touched it for about 20 years, and finally decided it is an utterly tedious piece of work. With all due respect to Chopin, it's no good even if it does have its moments.
But I guess you were joking Chaotica !

Though I didn't believe someone would take me serious ( ) I wasn't really. People keep hating and bullying this piece, but I actually love it. Of course, it isn't among the best Chopin pieces because it's on the rather light-hearted side. And it may sound a bit like his early works, which are imho really tedious, but I think it is much more beautiful.

Whether the musical content is really worth taking all these technical diffculties, I don't know, either.

That is exactly the problem with this work. It's an overlong pile-up of grand gestures and laboured virtuoso passages. There sure are good melodies here, but they get bogged down in all the rhetoric. A bit like in some Alkan pieces, but rather less convincing.
I used to have a soft spot for this piece too. But seems like it's gone now....

Pianolady, though I do have a hard time picking favorites with Chopin, this has always been one of my very favorites. I am very picky about it too, because most pianists do not play it the way it was marked. A big crescendo into the 3rd occurrence of the main theme is NOT ACCEPTABLE, because a diminuendo is marked. It is very tempting, though...

But the real climax is right before the calando section at the end. That last D-flat at the beginning of that calando section should be loud, loud! That is the climax! And to play the aforementioned tempting crescendo is just to create a false climax.

/rant, hehe


...maybe I should have listened to any recordings of this Nocturne on this site before I commented...I hope I didn't offend anyone.