Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Music Making Then and Now
- 2 With Broad Strokes (An Overview)
- 3 The Early Days of the Piano: Haydn and Mozart
- 4 Beethoven and the Evolving Piano
- 5 Schubert
- 6 Chopin
- 7 The Clavichord
- Epilogue: Creativity in the Performance of Old Music
- Appendix: Overtone Structure of the Steinway and Walter, Compared
- Glossary of Terms
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of Works
- General Index
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Music Making Then and Now
- 2 With Broad Strokes (An Overview)
- 3 The Early Days of the Piano: Haydn and Mozart
- 4 Beethoven and the Evolving Piano
- 5 Schubert
- 6 Chopin
- 7 The Clavichord
- Epilogue: Creativity in the Performance of Old Music
- Appendix: Overtone Structure of the Steinway and Walter, Compared
- Glossary of Terms
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of Works
- General Index
Summary
On the piano, playing Chopin in a tasteful way requires one to walk a tightrope, with tasteless over-romanticism on one side, and square and sterile academia on the other. On the Pleyel, this tightrope expanded a bit, and there was some ease and comfort in interpretation.
—a student in my seminar at the Université de MontréalChopin on the Pleyel
The Pleyel brings us closer to Chopin. His affinity for these pianos is well-documented;he used them for his Paris performances whenever possible and also in his teaching. They can help us interpret his highly prescriptive notation, now available in new, more accurate critical editions (such as Jan Ekier’s for the Polish National Edition, and John Rink et al. for Peters). Accounts of his playing and teaching—conveniently organized and indexed by Eigeldinger—provide further insight into Chopin’s style, as do recordings by pianists descended from the Chopin circle such as Raoul Koczalski, Raoul Pugno, and Moriz Rosenthal.
The new editions include alternate readings for many passages.These variants complicate the editor’s job but are a treasure trove for interpreters: besides giving us choices of what to play, they remind us that this music was born of improvisation. Yet despite their improvisatory origins, Chopin’s scores are astonishingly specific, with meticulous instructions for dynamics, articulation, and pedaling. These contradictory traits of freedom and control are beautifully reflected in this description of Chopin’s compositional process by his companion George Sand:
His creativity was spontaneous, miraculous; he found it without seeking it, without expecting it. It arrived at his piano suddenly, completely, sublimely, or it sang in his head during a walk, and he would hasten to hear it again by recreating it on his instrument. But then would begin the most heartbreaking labor I have ever witnessed … He would shut himself up in his room for days at a time, weeping, pacing, breaking his pens, repeating or changing a single measure a hundred times, writing it and erasing it with equal frequency, and beginning again the next day with desperate perseverance.
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- Piano-Playing RevisitedWhat Modern Players Can Learn from Period Instruments, pp. 131 - 157Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021