Scherzo No. 2 in B‑Flat Minor

Famously, “scherzo” means “joke”, and in the 50 years preceding Chopin’s use of the title its main home was in multi-movement works such as a symphony or a sonata. The chief models for Chopin were the many such scherzos by Beethoven, which shared a triple meter, lively tempo and a central trio section. Chopin’s four scherzos established the form as a free-standing work, a typical example of his elevating an old genre to a new status of independence. The Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31, composed between 1835 and 1837, is the most frequently played of the four. It opens—dramatically, with a sotto voce rising figure shattered by fortissimo response—in B-flat minor, but most of the work is in D-flat major, the music overflowing with impassioned, almost demonic lyricism. Chopin retains the traditional tripartite structure, and a central section presents a chorale-like melody before expanding in texture, figuration and volume. The return of the opening section is prepared with the kind of detail and development one might expect from a sonata movement, and the work is rounded off in triumphant style by a spectacular coda. It is with good reason that this remains one of Chopin’s most popular works.