The concert polonaises of mid-nineteenth-century Polish composers like Frédéric Chopin and, less famously, Henryk Wieniawski were the starting point for a whole host of non-Polish composers who set out to put their own imprint on this venerable Polish dance form. Rather less well-known, however, are the occasional instances of polonaise composition by non-Poles that predate any of Chopin's efforts; Franz Schubert's Four Polonaises for piano four-hands, D. 599 are among the members of this unusual category. Schubert probably wrote them as material to use while teaching music to the two daughters of the Count of Ezterházy at their summer home in Zseliz in 1818. They were published as Op. 75 in 1827, a year before their composer passed away.

Each of the four polonaises of Op. 75 is written in true ternary (ABA) form. No. 1 in D minor has a trio in A minor that easily outshines the music of the outer sections; this gem of a trio rolls easily and quietly forward in gentle dotted rhythms, eventually disappearing into thin air as the assertive opening music appears for its reprise. No. 2 in B flat major begins with more character than does No. 1; it is wonderfully easy-going, but still retains some of those twinges of melancholy essential to polonaise style. Its trio moves from its D minor origin to a sparkling, chromatically-tinged D major. No. 3 is in the happiest of E majors. The necessary polonaise rhythms at times seem little more than distant echoes; the trio is cast in D flat major. The final polonaise of the set, No. 4 in F major, has none of the bombast we might attribute to the polonaise; it is gentle and witty, with a C major trio that allows for some imitation between the two pianists that grazes the highest, bell-like register of the piano.

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