This is one of the most famous melodies ever written, and the beautiful melody is the beginning and the end. But in the middle there is one of the hardest passages I’ve ever played, all tricky tritones in both hands, eventually stretching beyond the reach of many players. It’s like a war in the middle, and I’ve been working on it for decades.

The Chopin Etudes are monsters to play, all of them.

The best young players on the planet all perform them in piano competitions. In such etudes Chopin was setting out his ideas about piano technique, and they were so revolutionary that we all study them today to learn better how to move. Most of them truly are etudes in the truest sense, all about technique. although they are also interesting music.

But this one is unusual in that it’s both an etude and a beautiful melody.

Even for Chopin this is a step above almost everything else, which is why the world loves it. I was afraid to even try to record this, even though I’ve been playing for several decades. I had to do technical work for the middle part, which is very difficult. Ironically, all the work I’ve been doing with “student” composer like Carroll got me over the finish line, finally.