Tune in Today: Chopin’s ‘Winter Wind’ Etude

Escape for a few minutes into the beauty of classical music with a Frederick Chopin Etude, an achievement that married virtuosity and artistic expression.

Frederick Chopin’s Etude Op. No. 11 in A minor fits its nickname well. janispalulis/Shutterstock

It begins simply, with eight lonely, unaccompanied notes in the right hand played softly at the very slow tempo indication of “lento.” Without harmony to define them, the notes could fit into a number or different keys. The little tune repeats, are now harmonized in comfortable C major. But then a chord pivots the key toward a chillier A minor. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the listener is plunged into an allegro torrent of rapidly cascading notes pitted against the opening theme, which is now angrily re-harmonized in an upward struggle against the falling notes.

Pianist pianist Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka playing Chopin’s Etude Op. 25, No. 11