LDV14

The Barcarolle op.60, which one might describe as the apogee of late Chopin . . . The writing reaches a literally unheard-of degree of richness: harmonic profusion, polyphony perfectly integrated with the musical texture. First of all there’s that extraordinary introduction with its major ninth – a door opening into the future – that explodes and disintegrates in a succession of chords which, as in many other places in the work, foreshadows the experiments of Impressionism. Once this brief introduction is over, we start with a very simple barcarolle accompaniment: the listener is very far from imagining everything that will be built on this, with a freedom that is only gradually revealed. One gets the impression that there are no sharp edges, no contours; the work simply flows in the most supremely natural way, with astonishing harmonies. Just before the unprecedented passage marked dolce sfogato , a moment where time stands still, we encounter a series of chords in the lower medium that modulate by chromatic shift (bars 72-77); it’s virtually Wagner avant la lettre , and one can’t help thinking of Act II of Tristan . . . Chopin covered a huge distance in the Barcarolle, rather as if he had already reached another shore. The Italian luminosity I mentioned earlier is more diffuse here, softened by a touch of mist. Thewaters of theVenetian lagoon, which Chopin never visited, inspired him to write a masterpiece in which death is approached with a hard-won serenity, in what Ravel called ‘a mysterious apotheosis’. 25 PHILIPPE BIANCONI