Small marvels: Chopin's Op 15 no 2

Being a little pressed for time recently, I don't have time for a full-fledged post to mark Chopin's birthday (which fell last Wednesday), but I will just take a moment to appreciate the middle section of the rather underrated Op 15 no 2 nocturne, taking my explanation from Frederick Viner's excellent video below. What makes this section sound so lush, as Viner highlights, is the buoyant 'harmonic filling' under the octave melody, with the last note of the filling being displaced to create 'flowing quintuplets.' This creates a sense of interlacing, forward, restless movement, which is really quite magical.

Update: I've just heard today marks the birthday of the brilliant Daniil Trifonov, so I'll leave you with one of my favourite Trifonov Chopin recordings- his competition performance of the Barcarolle. It's lush, silky and passionate. It just showcases everything that's great about Trifonov's style, really: a fantastic gift for holding back in the sinister, mysterious moments (3:05), spinning silk (that dolce sfogato!), as well as going wild when Chopin calls for it (6:49!).

Especially when played this way, the Barcarolle, for me, is the musical manifestation of the French verb se livrer (to give yourself over, to surrender)- a work of such intoxicating lyricism that I don't think a single other piano work really compares (except perhaps Chopin's own Berceuse, which operates on a more silvery, nocturnal sense of beauty than the warmth of the Barcarolle). Listening to it makes me think of Emily Dickinson's famous judgement on poetry:

'If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?'