F. Chopin - Scherzo no.1 in B minor Op. 20 - Analysis. Greg Niemczuk's lecture. 

After discovering your channel, it is to my upmost confusion that you don't get nearly enough attention as you should get here on RU-vid. I can now comfortably say that the algorithm is simply arbitrary, and those who end up at the top perhaps may not be fit and as deserving of that attention. Thank you, and keep doing what you're doing :)

Never saw such a better explanation to a Chopin piece. You made me appreciate this Scherzo even more.

You deserve so much more recognition. What you are doing is absolutely essential and a treat to listen to. Subscribed instantly!

What a warm-hearted, great, wise and appreciated contribution! I am happy to have found this gem - you are niesamowity (if not wrongly translated: amazing) :-)!

I remember that in the conservatory of my country, my previous teacher taught this work saying that she felt bullets killing people, pain, anguish, fear and thus also showing the most emotional part when thinking about one's own mother. I think that those who show their feelings as personal as Chopin himself are the ones who make this world a better world, just as you made personal comments with which they brought tears to my eyes. The weight of imperfect perfection to feel what is not perfect resulting in such a perfectly imperfect interpretation of emotion and reason is a very difficult job to show in public. I understood you perfectly when you said why you did not interpret it before.

I was so shocked after hearing this piece for the first time that I needed your analysis right away. This furious emotions reminded me of the young chopin left Poland, I see I got that right. Also this piece is very hard to count the rythm, it's so fast it's almost like a whole bar is one beat... such a contrar with the trio, so beautiful 😊

That's really great! Thank You so much for that amazing explanation , it helps to understand how deep is this music.

Great video and great channel. Thank you for your work

This is another one I would like to learn, thanks for all you inspiration.

Thank you again for this wonderful lecture ! I very much appreciate your enthousiastic style & technical expertise in explaining these masterpieces by Chopin.

I am excited for this new series! Thank you for your wonderful knowledge and great playing as always.

Fantastic lecture and playing! I love your project and sharing your understandings and experiences! I feel like you are more inspired than ever with the scherzos. I started learning scherzo 4 a few months ago and left it aside for some smaller projects. I am eagerly waiting your insights before I continue learning this piece!

Stunning, mind-blowing video, thank you so very much Greg!!!!!

Really great video. You bring up some excellent points!

My friend, I truly love what you do for us. This deep poetic insight you convey for Chopin and his feelings and how they're imbued in his music is so moving. You're a true sensitive soul like he was. Thank you so much.

Greg, this is a very valuable work you are doing. Thank You!

Very special class!! Thanks

Hi Greg, just wanted to say that I love your channel! I've watched a bunch of your videos and have found them super valuable. I love Chopin's music more than just about anything on earth and I am so pleased to have stumbled on your channel a few months ago. Keep up the amazing work!!

Wow! I really enjoyed this. Thank you so much for making such an informative analysis. I'm learning this piece myself, and now have such a deeper appreciation for it.

I’m learning this one right now. I love the video. Love your breakdown/analysis of it! I subbed

What a masterful analysis ! Very eye opening to learn the quotations of the polish christmas carol and the maiden’s wish, and the traumatic screaming chords at the end

This is the best analysis of Chopin's Scherzo #1 that I've seen. Thank you! ❤

What can I say...it's amazing. So crazy, so sad, so painful at the same time...

You're such a passionate, emotion-filled human being, this is honestly so refreshing. That combined with such precise and amazing explanations, that makes it an incredible analysis, Merci mon ami, vous m'avez beaucoup aidé !

what a gem . dziekuje

such an insightfull video, looking forward to hear you in norway!

Just discovered your channel, this video helped a lot, I am currently practicing the A section as I wanted to play this for years now...finally I began ;) 11:22 very funny ;)

Just wonderful. Thank you for this.

Good evening!

Absolutely incredible, I also didn't appreciate this piece and found the repeats boring until I watched this video! Thank you Greg!

Thank you very very much for this webinar- if you let me call it as such- i want to start working on this piece and the video has given me amazing insight especially where you mention the connection between the christmas melody and his first love. I always loved this scherzo since i was young, having looked at the score recently I thought it was very “demonic”… and that chopin was battling with his demons… i also like your analogy of clusters and his concept dissonance for his time. I completely agree and the chords should be played as if you are playing a cluster in modern music!! Thank you again!!

Thank you for fantastic analysis! I know this scherzo has Lulajze Jezuniu.it’s so beautiful.but this scherzo is not for me, I thought.but now I’d like to challenge this one. Thanks Greg! I’d like to hear this scherzo in your concert someday!

@gregniemczuk would you consider doing a live recital on RU-vid of your own compositions to paying subscribers? I love your analysis, and your emotional connection to the pieces. I would love to see and hear what you have written, and get an insight into your thoughts and feelings when you wrote them if you spoke about each piece briefly. I know it's a very personal thing to put out there and you might not be ready, but at least from me, there would be no judgement 😅

It was fun to take you playing the Scherzo slowly and putting RU-vid at doube-speed in the settings. :)

I wasn't able to fully appreciate this piece because I couldn't understand it. I didn't know Chopin stayed alone in Viena after leaving Poland and before arriving in Paris but I've read this on Benita Eisler's book (Chopin's Funeral) this week. This Scherzo is really amazing. I'm watching your analysis as I watch a TV Show and this Scherzi Season is the best so far!

Schumann was probably inspired by the middle section to write his Romance op.28, no.2. The melodies are so similar.

The coda (39:54) is developed by the motif of the rising third in the second theme of the A section (23:41), the D rises to F#.

Greg, when you have the time, could you post a video of the entire polish Christmas carol that you demonstrated here? Thanks!

I’m 18 years old and have been playing the piano for 11 years… This piece is by far the most difficult thing I have ever attempted…I have played many Chopin Waltzes, Polonaises, Bach Preludes and fugues, Beethoven Sonatas. Nothing comes close to the difficultly of this piece for me. I have invested probably more than 200 hours into this piece

😥, the part about the middle of the polonaise fantaisie, his mother singing 💔

You explained sooo beautifuly so wonderfuly thank you soo much!!!! You interpret and play very deeply very beautifully bravo thank you!!! By the way I hate 20th century music...it not a music it a distortion of music and soul....beauty is so deeply integrated in Chopin's mind and soul he express his feelings his life soo winderfuly... words are not enaugh to tell his geniosity

this piece has the weirdest fingerings of anything I've tried, that's what makes is so tough. But its among my top 3 favourite Chopin pieces.

11:53 is what this scherzo would sound like if Leo Ornstein wrote it 100 years later.

"...I do not want to play it in public..." Indeed, reinforces the question I had already in mind: Chopin can hardly have played this in the aristocratic Salons of Vienna or Paris so essential to his future - so did he write it just for himself?

This video is from 2021. In 2022, we have war with an other russian invasion and so many people suffering and leaving theyr country. Makes me sad, how actuel it is...

24:48 - that motif is also the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath - Revelation 6:17). who said that Chopin did not believe in Jesus as Lord? The day of wrath will come upon all non-believers. Only those who turn from their sin and believe in the Lord Jesus will go to heaven.