Piano Concerto No. 2 is the fourth composition from Chopin to be presented here after the last entry – Nocturne Op.9 No.2. I first heard this exquisite piece in a documentary about Polish – American pianist Arthur Rubinstein (see image inset). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time and also many cite him as one of the greatest Chopin interpreters of his time. He played in public for eight decades and he plays Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in the video presented at the end of this article.
The following I translated from my daughter’s book on Chopin (see image inset):
Son of a Frenchman and Polish woman, Chopin was born 22 de February, 1810. Before he could learn to read he wanted to compose melodies. When he was 8-years old he played for large audiences and at 15 he was considered the finest pianist in Warsaw. Chopin wanted tranquility but in Warsaw large marching bands and the yells from angry people annoyed him. So, he decided to move to Paris where he discovered fame, luxury and high fashion. In Paris everyone celebrated the arrival of Chopin. He was renowned as the ‘Prince of Pianists‘. Chopin died in Paris at age 39. His last wishes were that they play Mozart at his funeral and let his heart rest forever in the Warsaw Cathedral.
Chopin composed the piece before he had finished his formal education, at around 20 years of age. It was first performed on 17 March 1830, in Warsaw, Poland with the composer as soloist. It was the second of his piano concertos to be published after the Piano Concerto No. 1 (See The Truman Show soundtrack), and so was designated as “No. 2“, even though it was written first.
Melinda Erickson in her ‘A Formal Analysis of Four Selected Piano Concertos of the Romantic Era‘ wrote that Piano Concerto No 2 was work of “undescribable beauty“. This nocturnal movement is said to have been inspired by Chopin’s distant idolization of Konstancja Gładkowska or of Tytus Woyciechowski.
References:
1. Piano Concerto No. 2 (Chopin) – Wikipedia
2. Arthur Rubinstein – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
Perfect this morning..somehow captures my mood….
Same here. You basically can’t go wrong with Chopin. It put me in a great head space when I heard it again this morning. His piano concerto No 1 Mov 2 is also top notch and is used a lot in The Truman Show.
You have me really liking him. It’s mellowing and exhilarating at once.
An exquisite piece, masterfully played by the great Rubinstein. Chopin was truly a musical genius in the vein of Mozart, who also sadly died at far too young an age. It’s astonishing to me that Chopin wrote such a beautiful concerto when he was only 19 years old.
Yes, I remarking to my kids yesterday when we were listening to it how young Chopin was when he composed it. It’s staggering.