Folio, 19 pp. [PN] 2494. First edition of Chopin's Scherzo no. 2 in B-flat major, a work which, like so much of his extraordinary music, permanently resides in the consciousness of even the most unmusical of us. Schumann compared its tempestuous strains to a Byronic poem, "so overflowing with tenderness, boldness, love and contempt." According to Wilhelm von Lenz, a pupil of Chopin, the composer described the famous sotto voce opening as a question to which the booming second phrase is answer: "For Chopin it was never questioning enough, never soft enough, never vaulted enough. It must be a charnel-house." Huneker exults, "What masterly writing, and it lies in the very heart of the piano! A hundred generations may not improve on these pages.” The present example is a precious object, inscribed by Chopin on the title-page, “à Mlle C. Porte. Chopin”. Mercié-Porte was a professeur at the Conservatoire de Paris. Light stain at upper left corner of title-page, otherwise in very fine condition. Housed in a custom archival folder with burgundy marbled-paper covered boards and crimson title plate on spine. Chopin presentations are of the utmost rarity: he would die in 1849 at the age of 39. Platzmann 118.