Search - Peter Katin, Chopin :: Nocturnes No 1-20

The twenty-one Nocturnes, consisting of eighteen published by Chopin himself and three posthumous pieces, represent for the world at large a region of music with which the composer is particularly and inseparably associated. The first ten Nocturnes show the gradual blossoming of Chopin's inspiration as we pass from the boyish, uncomplicated romanticism of the well-known E flat work to the uneasy, sinister, Byronic atmosphere of the masterpiece in C sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 1. The second series of Nocturnes comprises eight works of Chopin's maturity together with two juvenile pieces published after his death. The last of these, a Lento in C sharp minor, is here recorded (for the first time) directly from Chopin's actual original manuscript (Warsaw, 1830) and not from the published version which represents a simplication of 1836.