Polonaise No.11, 'Adieu' in B flat minor

The Polish dance, the Polonaise, found its way from village to ball-room and thence abroad. In Paris in 1830 Poland was in the news, with the attempted rising against Russia and its opression, and things Polish enjoyed considerable popularity, a fact from which Chopin benefited on his arrival in the city. As with other relatively trivial dance forms, he was able to raise the Polonaise to a new level, imparting a degree of complexity and a degree of feeling that had not always been present in the work of his elders in Warsaw.