Description: The Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54 is different from the other scherzos by Chopin. Close to the fairytale sphere, though devoid of elves and goblins, it is brighter than the others, written with a finer, lighter pen, though it too occasionally reminds us of the existence of shadows and frights. Two categories of expression form this pianistic poem, which delights us with the immaculate beauty of its sound: the expression of play and the expression of love. The central section of the E major Scherzo (lento, then sostenuto) is filled with thoughtful music, gazing at distant horizons, sounding like the expression of pure yet ardent love.

Description: The Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54 is different from the other scherzos by Chopin. Close to the fairytale sphere, though devoid of elves and goblins, it is brighter than the others, written with a finer, lighter pen, though it too occasionally reminds us of the existence of shadows and frights. Two categories of expression form this pianistic poem, which delights us with the immaculate beauty of its sound: the expression of play and the expression of love. The central section of the E major Scherzo (lento, then sostenuto) is filled with thoughtful music, gazing at distant horizons, sounding like the expression of pure yet ardent love.

Description: The Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54 is different from the other scherzos by Chopin. Close to the fairytale sphere, though devoid of elves and goblins, it is brighter than the others, written with a finer, lighter pen, though it too occasionally reminds us of the existence of shadows and frights. Two categories of expression form this pianistic poem, which delights us with the immaculate beauty of its sound: the expression of play and the expression of love. The central section of the E major Scherzo (lento, then sostenuto) is filled with thoughtful music, gazing at distant horizons, sounding like the expression of pure yet ardent love.

Description: The Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54 is different from the other scherzos by Chopin. Close to the fairytale sphere, though devoid of elves and goblins, it is brighter than the others, written with a finer, lighter pen, though it too occasionally reminds us of the existence of shadows and frights. Two categories of expression form this pianistic poem, which delights us with the immaculate beauty of its sound: the expression of play and the expression of love. The central section of the E major Scherzo (lento, then sostenuto) is filled with thoughtful music, gazing at distant horizons, sounding like the expression of pure yet ardent love.

Description: The Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54 is different from the other scherzos by Chopin. Close to the fairytale sphere, though devoid of elves and goblins, it is brighter than the others, written with a finer, lighter pen, though it too occasionally reminds us of the existence of shadows and frights. Two categories of expression form this pianistic poem, which delights us with the immaculate beauty of its sound: the expression of play and the expression of love. The central section of the E major Scherzo (lento, then sostenuto) is filled with thoughtful music, gazing at distant horizons, sounding like the expression of pure yet ardent love.

Description: The Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54 is different from the other scherzos by Chopin. Close to the fairytale sphere, though devoid of elves and goblins, it is brighter than the others, written with a finer, lighter pen, though it too occasionally reminds us of the existence of shadows and frights. Two categories of expression form this pianistic poem, which delights us with the immaculate beauty of its sound: the expression of play and the expression of love. The central section of the E major Scherzo (lento, then sostenuto) is filled with thoughtful music, gazing at distant horizons, sounding like the expression of pure yet ardent love.

Description: The Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54 is different from the other scherzos by Chopin. Close to the fairytale sphere, though devoid of elves and goblins, it is brighter than the others, written with a finer, lighter pen, though it too occasionally reminds us of the existence of shadows and frights. Two categories of expression form this pianistic poem, which delights us with the immaculate beauty of its sound: the expression of play and the expression of love. The central section of the E major Scherzo (lento, then sostenuto) is filled with thoughtful music, gazing at distant horizons, sounding like the expression of pure yet ardent love.

Description: The Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39, in C-sharp minor by Frdric Chopin, completed in 1839, was written in the abandoned monastery of Valldemossa on the Balearic island of Majorca, Spain. This is the most terse, ironic, and tightly constructed of the four scherzos, with an almost Beethovenian grandeur. The music is given over to a wild frenzy, mysteriously becalmed, then erupting a moment later with a return of the aggressive octaves.

Description: The Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39, in C-sharp minor by Frdric Chopin, completed in 1839, was written in the abandoned monastery of Valldemossa on the Balearic island of Majorca, Spain. This is the most terse, ironic, and tightly constructed of the four scherzos, with an almost Beethovenian grandeur. The music is given over to a wild frenzy, mysteriously becalmed, then erupting a moment later with a return of the aggressive octaves.

Description: After the pungent, robust motives of the principal theme of the Scherzo, played fortissimo and risoluto in double octaves, like a voice from another realm comes the focused, austere music of a chorale, interspersed with airy passages of beguiling sonorities. The chorale returns many times over, and with it those airy garlands of sound. As its song is reprised, it slips from the hard E major into the gentle, but sad and mysterious (uttered sotto voce), E minor. This altered theme concludes with question marks, imbued with mystery and expectation, soaring upwards in the utmost silence. And we have the most beautiful moment in the whole of the Scherzo: the apotheosis of the chorale. Through a sequence of chords that progress calmly upwards (now in C sharp major), the music attains ecstasy.