Baerenreiter Verlag

Composer: Frederic Chopin
Editor: Christoph Flamm
Fingering: Hardy Rittner
Format: Performance Score
Instrumentation: Piano
Languages: German, English
Level: 6

Hardly any cycle of piano pieces can match the magnetic attraction of Chopin's "24 Preludes", published in 1839. Schumann called them "sketches, beginnings of etudes, [...] ruins, stray eagle's pinions, all disorder and wild confusion".

Christoph Flamm has critically reevaluated the sources, bringing to light new readings of this well-known musical text. Hardy Rittner, a hammerklavier specialist and two-time winner of the ECHO Classic prize, who has recorded Brahms' piano music and all of Chopin's "Etudes" on period pianofortes, has supplemented Chopin's fingering from a historically informed perspective. He also provides valuable notes on performance practice, especially with regard to pedalling, rubato, latent polyphony, legato and Chopin's perception of sound.

An aesthetically presented engraving and practical page-turns make this current edition indispensable for today's scholars and performers.

• Urtext edition with new readings
• Notes on performance practice (Ger/Eng)
• With historically informed fingering and practical page-turns
• Informative Foreword (Ger/Eng) and detailed Critical Commentary (Eng)

Contents:

Vorwort
Hinweise zur Auffuhrungspraxis
Preface
Notes on Performance Practice

Twenty-four Preludes for piano op. 28:
1. Agitato C major
2. Lento A minor
3. Vivace G major
4. Largo E minor
5. Allegro molto D major
6. Lento assai B minor
7. Andantino A major
8. Molto agitato F sharp minor
9. Largo E major
10. Allegro molto C sharp minor
11. Vivace B major
12. Presto G sharp minor
13. Lento F sharp major
14. Allegro E flat minor
15. Sostenuto D flat major
16. Presto con fuoco B flat minor
17. Allegretto A flat major
18. Allegro molto F minor
19. Vivace E flat major
20. Largo C minor
21. Cantabile B flat major
22. Molto agitato G minor
23. Moderato F major
24. Allegro appassionato D minor

Prelude for piano op. 45:
Sostenuto C sharp minor

Critical Commentary