While the Piano Sonata No. 2 gained instant popularity with the public, critical reception was initially more doubtful. A typical performance of Chopin's second sonata lasts between 21 and 25 minutes, depending on whether the repetition of the first movement's exposition is observed.

Bach and by Ludwig van Beethoven Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 12 also has a funeral march as its third movement. The Piano Sonata No. 2 carries allusions and reminiscences of music by J. The third movement of the Piano Sonata No. 2 is Chopin's famous funeral march ( French: Marche funèbre Polish: Marsz żałobny) which was composed at least two years before the remainder of the work and has remained, by itself, one of Chopin's most popular compositions.

The first of the composer's three mature sonatas (the others being the Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 and the Sonata for Piano and Cello in G minor, Op. 65), the work is considered to be one of the greatest piano sonatas of the literature. Chopin completed the work while living in George Sand's manor in Nohant, some 250 km (160 mi) south of Paris, a year before it was published in 1840. The Piano Sonata No. 2 in B ♭ minor, Op. 35, is a piano sonata in four movements by Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. Watercolour of Chopin by Maria Wodzińska, 1836

B-flat minor