Chopin: Variations on L ci darem la mano, Op.2 (Trifonov, Nebolsin)

It’s very unfortunate that Chopin never seriously explored theme and variation form over his career, given that this opus – the one which famously made Schumann go “Hats off, gentlemen! A Genius!” – is a wonderful piece of work, and curiously unlike anything else Chopin wrote. Seriously – just listen to that introduction, with all that densely wafting filigree over a defiantly untethered bass. Nothing else Chopin wrote is even vaguely like it except for some passages in a late work, the Berceuse (whic