Chopin's divine Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27, #2

 

It all started with her. Mary Przypyszny was a fabulous pianist and also happened to be a member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority, of which I was a big brother. Anyway, Mary played not only Chopin's Nocturne on several occasions my sophomore year of college but also Debussy's first book of Images, including what would become one of my favorite pieces, "Reflets dans l'eau." 

I do have a way of jumping from one topic to the next, but that just shows how so many of my musical experiences arise from one source and are often interconnected. Enough about me - now Chopin! 

At our college the music department scheduled a student recital nearly every Friday noon in Ewell Hall. This forum provided the mature players an opportunity to play in front of audiences and to get feedback or simply to gain experience on stage. Mary played this Nocturne at one of these recitals and I swore I'd never heard anything so beautiful before. A month later she played it in a master class given by visiting artist Leonard Pennario. I remember one comment he made on her performance, "A nocturne is a 'night piece' and so you want to maintain that feeling throughout it. Even here...." And he pointed to this:

It does say that this is to be played "with force" (con forza) and she played it like that, but also beautifully and serenely. I think the master teacher was just saying that in order to give us listeners something to hold on to. I certainly did.

But it was this passage (12 against 48) and others - like the 6 against 7 in the last bars - that made me have so much respect for people who could play this that I didn't attempt it for 30 years.

Thirty-two years, to be precise. In 2014 I was lucky enough to be taking lessons with Russudan Meipariani, who helped me with dozens of pieces over the course of a couple of years. My technique and understanding of music increased tremendously, as did my enjoyment of playing the piano. I'll never forget playing this for her one day in November and she said to me, "That was really beautiful. I don't think there is anything else I can say about it now. Good job!"

If you ask me about my favorite recording of this, I might surprise you. With all the great Chopin interpreters out there, I myself was surprised to be taken in by the playing of Tiffany Poon. There was a wonderful recording on YouTube of her playing the Nocturne as a 12 year-old, but it is unfortunately no longer available. But her rendition from the Chopin International Piano Competition as a 19 year-old in 2015 is also sublime. (And if you have a little bit more time to listen to her Chopin, the next piece she plays in this video is the Etude, Op. 10, No. 8, which Mary P. also played in her senior recital. Well worth a listen!)

One more story pops into my head about her senior recital. As I mentioned above, I had a lot to do with Gamma Phi, so when Mary's big recital came around, I suggested that we buy her some roses and someone (me!) give them to her at the end of her program. The Treasurer gave me $25 to buy flowers for her, and I found a place that sold me two dozen long-stem red roses for that price (it was 1982). Unfortunately, I knew too little about giving musicians flowers on stage (I would get more practice over the years) and so I presented her with an arm-load of thorny wet roses at the piano. She was surprised and delighted, though, and rewarded my sophomoric efforts with a kiss. Bliss!