Chopin wrote his piano concertos for his own use, intending to excel as a piano virtuoso in major musical cities like Vienna, Paris, and London.
Compositional Technique
Chopin's piano concertos are written in the 'stile brillante' tradition, where the orchestra plays a subordinate role to the soloist.
Critical Reception
Robert Schumann, a German composer and influential music critic, commented that Chopin's F minor concerto showed he possessed a small but wholly unique 'cohort' rather than an 'orchestral army'.
Composition History
The F minor concerto, though composed first, was published three years after the E minor concerto because the E minor work was already well-known from Chopin's performances in Vienna, Munich, and Paris.
Instruments
The pianist on this recording, Margarita Höhenrieder, used a Pleyel fortepiano from around 1855, structurally identical to the instrument Chopin owned, to achieve an authentic sound.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Chopin disliked associations of his music with sentimental themes like homesickness or lovesickness, considering himself anything but a sentimental composer.
Interpretation
The orchestras on this recording also played on period instruments, and the pianist adopted fingering techniques from Carl Mikuli, a pupil of Chopin.
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