Tarantelle in A flat major, Op.43

Although there are quotations from Rossini in a few of his early pieces - and although Italian opera of the period had a lasting influence on his melodic style - direct echoes of Rossini in Chopin’s mature music are rare. However, in the Tarentelle which, rather surprisingly, he wrote at Nohant in 1841 there are fleeting reminders of “La Danza.” He didn’t possess a copy of the Rossini song himself but when he sent the Tarentelle to Julian Fontana to have it copied he asked him to have a look at “La Danza” to see whether it was in 6/8 or 12/8. “As to my composition,” he said, “it does not matter which way it is written, but I should prefer it to be like Rossini’s.” While it is not, by common consent, among the most inspired of Chopin’s works, it is very much more sophisticated than most of its tarantella kind and it does contrive - partly by harmonic means but mainly through an acceleration towards the end - to simulate something of the recklessness traditionally associated with the Neapolitan dance.