Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Chopin Mazurkas - Forum Recital!

Yes.

Does anyone have a general recommendation for fingering? I've got a couple of editions fingered by Rafael Joseffy. Is there anyone who's considered to do a better job of it?

Not sure about published editions (there are much better people in here than me for that sort of information). But if you have a passage you want me to take a look at, I can help that way.

For the most part there's nothing too suprising but now and again I see something weird which may or may not have an underlying logic not immediately apparent (to me!).

I've been a bit slow to get a start on these so when I'm more stuck in I'll pick out one or two things and perhaps you could see what you think?

- cheers Derulux!

Absolutely, I'd be happy to.

Well, sometimes with fingering you just do what makes sense to you. Other times, you do encounter something that seems rather pointless until you get it up to tempo! Of course, by then it's harder to change the fingering. So feel free to ask questions about weird fingerings early on before it makes an issue for you.

Sometimes you utilize your fingers in dynamic fashion (almost guessing at the note aimed for, your arm moves lol) other times, your hand is static almost. . . without which, you would play more than one key!

Wi this Chopin piece I`m doing, I have to keep my arm and hand carefully positioned to obtain a clear sound, at speed. And I get a wave of heat expelling from my person; I think my brain`s working too hard. But I love it!

Don`t stand too close to me. . .

I remembered that I had a big hardcover Cyril Lemoine edition of the Chopin Mazurkas, looked through it and it has all of the Mazurkas.. even the ones that are still in the public domain because they were first published in the 20th century. I remember playing them before, but at a time when I didn't have that book, so I'm guessing my old Alfred that I threw away also had them.

I wonder sometimes why the composer did not publish those ph ones. Did he not like it? They are beautiful too. Did he not have enough time and energy to publish because he was dying? Or did he misplace them?

There is a gap in sophistication and polish between the published and unpublished Mazurkas, and other works for that matter. They are pretty, but they don't have the same substance and impact. Consider the Fantasie-Impromptu - I wouldn't want to delete it from the repertoire, for sure, but neither would I include it in a serious concert unless I was playing the three published ones as well.

I will never play a posthumous work. It just doesn't feel right.

You wouldn't want to apply that rule to Schubert. Think what you'd miss out on!

Why?

I'll probably get over it some day anyway.

Because less than 100 of Schubert's works were given opus numbers during his lifetime. A bunch more were published and given opus numbers after his death, but most of his 1000 works are "posthumous".

-J

Why?

Why weren't all his works published in his lifetime, do you mean? Because he lacked time, money and influence. If he'd had the luxury of a normal life span he may have managed to publish a bit more. Then again, he may have just spent his time writing more masterpieces. If only.

So I guess he wrote TONS of music like Bach and Mozart. Are all of his works of the highest quality?

Well they're not all of equal quality of course - of what composer could you say that? (One who only wrote one piece, I suppose ) But if you look at some of the pieces which weren't published in his lifetime (the octet, symphony no.9, G major string quartet, Death & the Maiden quartet, F minor Fantasie, any number of songs, the string quintet, the last three piano sonatas, just to mention a few) you'd have a hard time convincing anyone that lack of quality was the reason.

(And if you're only prepared to play Bach or Mozart published during their lifetimes your choice will be pretty limited too.)

Schubert is a case where most of his best music was not published in his lifetime. The D. 958/959/960 sonatas, the second book of Impromptus, the "Great" Symphony, the C major 'cello quintet, and several of the string quartets including "Death and the Maiden" all would be off limits.

This isn't the case with Chopin. Other than the Opp. 67/68 mazurkas, which he would surely have published had he lived to do so, his posthumous output is not as good as what he published.

No wonder I did not see Op numbers for Schubert Three Grand Sonatas No 3. I think it is the same as D 960. Love the second movement. The prettiest music ever composed by human.