This is a study in cross-rhythms and right hand triplets.. It requires delicate finger articulation for its characteristic Chopinesque whisper.

Chopin mentioned once that this Etude imagined a mirror of the soul of the girl he loved, Maria Wodzinska.

Schumann heard it "as the song of a sleeping child".

Wilhelm Kuhe, who heard Alexander Dreschock play the be-octaved Revolutionary Opus 10 No.12 in Vienna, tells how Franz Liszt practiced a little one-upmanship: " Liszt came to Vienna in 1847 and played, among other things Chopin's Etude Opus 25 No.2. Then he played the first bar in octaves, slowly. Then faster, then still faster, just for the first bar. Then he played the entire Etude with right hand octaves in the correct tempo. The Viennese public got the point."