Toccatas were written to show of the keyboardists skill in the Baroque Period. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote seven toccatas, and brought this form to its apex in the eighteenth century.
Frédéric François Chopin was an enigmatic composer and pianist shrouded in mystery. Behind the delicate ornamentation in much of his music was a shrewd business man. Using the title 'Ballade' for an instrumental work could not have been coincidental as he gave great thought to every note of his...
As the piano developed and became a mainstay in many middle-class homes after the French Revolution, piano literature from Beethoven into the Romantic period on became more complex and technically demanding. To meet the demands of the rapidly developing pianos, piano sonatas, piano concertos and...
Chopin's Opus 35, Sonata No. 2 is his only composition without a dedication. Could Opus 35 be a musical biography of his own life ?