Chopin’s furioso c-minor etude has become famous as the “Revolutionary Etude”. According to unsubstantiated legend, the composer wrote it in September 1831 when news of the crushing of the Polish uprising and the capture of Warsaw by the Russian army began to spread. Yet even independently of such extramusical aspects, the etude, with its thundering, plunging runs and rolling left-hand figures, ranks among Chopin’s most moving and overpowering works. Those who are not ready to tackle the complet...