In my opinion, the melody that starts 13:48 is the best Chopin ever wrote. Hauntingly beautiful, sorrowful but at the same also has a tinge of happiness.

Hi Greg thanks again for sharing this analysis. I wanted to share my interpretation of the piece even if you probably don't bother. Part A is like realizing the loss of a really dear person and asking for the meaning of death (and so of life). Part B has always sounded to me as remembering the beatiful moments spent with the person who is now gone. After that the need to find an answer to the question is really urgent and becomes almost a cry (crescendo part A), like in Liszt Invocation btw. The whole sonata to me sounds like raising the question of a meaning to life and death. The fourth movement is probably the real tragedy. To me it sounds like spiraling down as if the question raised never would be answered. Thanks again Greg!

Thank you very much for this wonderful analysis. I really like the fact you left the second part open for interpretation. To me this part is a lullaby. I can feel the pure peace of a child that is being sung to sleep by its mother. Maybe it means the lullaby is singing him to sleep for eternity. What I also feel listening to this part is a sort of "dissolving and flying away" This could be the soul that just fell asleep forever, rises and flies to heaven. Afterwards there is only death left on the cemetery, that's why the first part is repeated.

Hi greg, I started watching your videos because I am a fan of Chopin’s music. I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into your analysis and your videos in general. Thank you for all that and looking forward to new videos!

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, thoughts and feelings on this colossal movement. I also very much agree with Matteo Bandera in the comments. I had many different inner ideas on the meaning of the middle part in D flat, but one that seems to prevail is that it is a recollection of idyllic moments of life with the deceased. But now you opened my mind and heart to the other, very sound possibilities. Many thanks and blessings 🤍

Have you heard Satie's "Embryons desséchés"? He quotes the D-flat major excerpt and cites it as "a theme from Schubert's Grand Mazurka".

Hi, does the performance at the end not have sound at all?

I have a curiosity. Which sonata were you going to play at the Chopin Competition?

Hi, Greg. The sound from Nagoya recital is off, can`t hear anything. Others made comment about this, so I`m not the only one.

Thank you for this excellent analysis Greg. It was interesting to learn the connection with Beethoven. I was recently inspired to learn the intro to this movement after hearing Aime Kobayashi's playing. (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ns2Jf8V3mMDYZ4E.html) It does not surprise me to learn that many musicologists have criticized the middle section. For me it lacks a certain "je ne sais quoi", that I hear for example, in a similarly melancholy piece, the intro to Nocturne Op 55, No 1 in F minor. A propos, for lesser pianists like myself who struggle to make a decent tremolo with the left hand, I have found it easier to cross hands for those 2 bars. Strangely the treble chords in those bars are also made easier in my opinion. Sounds crazy I know, but give it a try if the left hand tremolo is not easy for you.