Chopin had in mind a concert piece in the brillant style with introduction while still in Warsaw. As he quipped in a letter to Tytus Woyciechowski of 18 September 1830, “I have begun a polonaise with orchestra, but so far it’s just gin and no beginning...” It is likely that he completed Polonaise in E flat major only in Vienna in July 1831; he worked on Andante spianato in G major in Paris, in the winter of 1834-1835. The piece was published in 1836 as Grande Polonaise brillante précédée d’un Andante spianato and dedicated to the Baroness d’Este. Chopin used the orchestra as the accompaniment; as a result, his opus 22 is usually performed in its solo version.
Andante spianato (“spianato” denotes here “smooth” or “level”), from the very start written for piano solo, is maintained in a lullaby-nocturne character as a poetical introduction to the dazzling Grande Polonaise, itself in the form of rondo with coda, both symmetrical and recapitulative. Polonaise can be treated as the epitome of style brillant: its heroic theme is soon taken over by a rapid flow of impressive figurations and impressive ornamentations.
In Chopin’s creative evolution, his Grande Polonaise in E flat major belongs to the phase defined by Mieczysław Tomaszewski as “Romantic breakthrough” that coincided with the artist’s wandering years, burdened with strong patriotic experience.

Małgorzata Janicka-Słysz