At the time when Chopin began his creative path, tying it to the piano, this instrument was eventually dominated by keyboard performance, overshadowing the harpsichord and clavichord. And although some musicians convince us that the keyboard compositions by Józef Elsner and Karol Kurpiński, written in the 1820s and 1820s, sound well on the harpsichord, no one doubts that they were intended for the piano – an instrument which allowed the virtuosos who played it (already at the end of the 18th century they were called pianists) to shade the dynamics, achieve expressive nuances and develop a hitherto unparalleled technical proficiency. Kurpiński's pianism still represents the style of late Baroque playing. Against this background, Chopin's early works, e.g. the mazurkas, present themselves as eminently innovative in terms of pianistic ideas. In his mature compositions (sonatas in B flat minor and B minor, ballades), Chopin gave evidence of his almost unlimited imagination as regards the shaping of texture in conjunction with experimental harmonics. Chopin's path was followed by many composers of piano music from the second half of the 19th century: Liszt, Henselt, and Anton Rubinstein. Echoes of Rubinstein's music, popular at the end of the 19th century, can be heard in the youthful works of Ignacy Jan Paderewski, such as Sarabande from Op. 14, clearly imitating the salon type of archaic stylisation introduced by Rubinstein, or the sentimental Melody from Op. 16 for violin and piano. In the case of Mieczysław Karłowicz's Waltz in G major, it is difficult to speak of a conscious continuation of the achievements of the great piano masters, as it is a youthful composition, in fact a child's composition – written before he went to study composition in Berlin. We know that in his mature oeuvre Karłowicz never returned to the piano genre – the type of intimate expression associated with this instrument did not suit him, he much preferred the orchestra.

Magdalena Dziadek