Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Chopin's Op. 53...

Part of the challenge of doing such a "swindle" (Seymour Bernstein's word, a bit preferable to "cheat") ....is to make it sound the same!
You can do it.


I don't know either.
(I said you can do it, I didn't say I could.)

I just worked on it for a few minutes, which was long enough to see that this is a much better way for me to play it than any of the ways I had tried over the years -- and also long enough to see that it would take a lot of work (and a fair amount of passed time) to "make the change."

For some reason I did not much trouble, but I use 1-4-5-4 then 1-3-5-3.

You must have fits with the first page.

And you must have fits trying to quote a post!


But seriously folks.... do you mean you re-divide some stuff on there?
I might learn something else!
(Although, I suspect I wouldn't want to do it there. I like keeping those voices straight.)

edit: I think I only just got this.
(see later post)

I've always had fits with the first page. What a pain!

Yes.
It's one of those pieces, like Beethoven Op. 2 #3, where you can tell in the first 3 seconds if someone is up to the piece.

And BTW of course for you in the Beethoven, the answer came up roses.

I don't think the opening of the Chopin is any harder, even though the 'stuff' goes on longer.

I don't think the Beethoven is hard at all. Play on your nails and it takes away 99% of the difficulty. The opening of the Chopin is much harder for me.

If you've ever played La Campanella, you would have this alternate fingering: 1343. There is an entire passage of this exact trill marked 1343 in Liszt's etude.

If you're going to split the hands (meaning the LH will pick up the tab on the bottom notes of the octaves after the trill), you can jump 1232 12.


I typically play 1454, but sometimes I play a combination. When I play the combination, this is what I do: for the first, I play 1343. I pick up the F in the LH (thumb), but play the G octave with the RH. This sets up the Ab better than picking up the G in the LH (IMO).

Hope it helps.

Damon: I think maybe you were doing a joke that nobody got yet, including me.

Did you mean about it "looking" like all the notes should be played by the LH?

(That would be a pretty good trick!)

Hmmm - now that's something I haven't tried yet.....

Of course, finding a fingering that works (using both hands) on the first page is a challenge. I keep changing mine from time to time with mixed results.

I wondered why nobody got that, but then realized that other editions had the hands split. On a side note, I play the octaves in the middle all with my left hand.

^ LOL ^

I have too, when I performed it. (Because it wasn't any worse that way.)

But not when I'm just practicing it -- because why bother?

When I'm practicing that section, I start at the soto voce, ignoring those other bars altogether.

Why????? Isn't that part of the challenge of playing the middle section???

And after trying both approaches off and on over the years, I still favor playing the opening measures with both hands. Although now that I've switched to playing the lower notes of the four note octave groupings with 5-4-4-5 I've found I have much less tension compared to using 5-5-5-5.

Whatever works - right ????

Only in the sense that stamina is part of the challenge. If I can play the section, adding those two bars are hardly a challenge.

Now you're really blurring the line between sarcastic and straight, because I think you thought you were being serious there, but you can't be.

(Stamina is most of that challenge.)

Actually, playing the two measures with the LH only along with the rest of the middle section two times through as required is one heck of a stamina issue for many.

Regardless, I can practice the octaves and the rest at the same time. There is no need to practice those two bars alone; there are plenty of repeats and it doesn't hurt to practice the right hand. I don't play the octaves with two hands, ever. So what is the point, is there some danger that I'll get to the last 4 bars of that section and run out gas? I don't.

Been practicing and playing it with the new swindle, and I think it's gonna work. But the reason I'm bringing it back up is, I have an amendment on it.

For the second squiggle, i.e. the mordent on the high A-flat, I'm trying 3 instead of 4 on the Ab, so the fingering up there is 3432 rather than 4543. It has disadvantages but I think the advantages outweigh them.