[andyfox]

I didn't get the 1st movement for a long, long time. Too many notes and strange, jarring counterpoint.

The Scherzo is magical pianistic derring-do of the highest order, or at least one thinks it is until the Finale comes around. (Next time, listen for the "Good Evening Friends" near the end of the finale.) The cream-filled center of the Funeral March is as beautiful as piano music can be. I've heard the piece played live probably half a dozen times, and listened to recorded versions hundreds of times, played the movement myself endlessly, and I still get goosebumps when I hear the next-to-last chord in the movement.

BTW, the first biography of Chopin was written by your man Franz Liszt. Liszt's favorite Chopin was the Etude in A-flat, no. 2 from the Trois Nouvelle Etudes. If only one could hear Lizst playing that.