Hyperion Records

The Nocturne in A flat major was much later incorporated in an orchestral version into Fokine’s ballet Les Sylphides; I admit that this was how I first became acquainted with it so, like it or not, it is forever associated in my mind with the dance. The middle section in particular lends itself to this feeling with its lightly tripping triplets that become increasingly intense and wild, so much so as to bring back the opening theme fortissimo and appassionato. But Chopin gradually calms down, and closes the Nocturne with the same two-bar cadence and reverential gesture with which it opened.

from notes by Angela Hewitt © 2004