I'm looking for scores of Chopin's Op. 28, No. 15

[bacchuspaul]

I'm preparing an essay that compares several different performances of this piece (The Raindrop Prelude).

One aspect that I wish to look at is how various editions have affected performance practises. There are a few issues in particular:

Having listened to a performance by Alfred Cortot, where, in th final page, before the return to D flat, he sounds as though he plays large broken chords in the left hand before playing the actual scored notes.

Valentina Igoshina adds in a passing note in bar 16, between the F and E flat in the right hand on beats 2 and 3. Also, when playing the grace notes in the middle section at bars 39 and 55, she plays the note in a higher octave, before diving to the lower octave. This performance can be found here (if you have the patience to sit through it, she plays at a VERY slow, self indulgent tempo): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gV9gUeFHIw

I have chosen to compare these two performances because, whilst I am not fond of either, they both display very different approaches, and both are products of their respective times.

It is very possible that these examples are just individual performers trying to make a piece their own, but I was wondering if anybody knew of any scores that might allude to such practises as these. Unfortunately, the trend for Urtext scores means that I can only find scores that stick very faithfully to the originals. The oldest I've found is the one at www.sheetmusicarchive.net which I'm assuming is over 75 years old, therefore preceding the trend for Urtext scores. Unfortunately, it is fairly faithful to the original, so is not particularly useful for my purposes.

Any thanks in this matter would be hugely appreciated.

PS: Does anyone else think it's crazy that our trend towards authenticity is proving ruinous to my attempts to study authentic fallacies of the early part of the last century?

[gerry]

I listened to her video along with my Peters score and found the following:

The added passing note as you mentioned (e natural) in meas 12 - don't know where she got that - could be just a performance affectation.

I didn't hear (or see, since there is a point in the video when you can actually see her hands) the departure from score in meas 39 and 55 that you mentioned - it seemed to be played as written.

In addition to what you noted, I did find that she departed from my (and your example) score in the following:

Meas. 33 and 49 where the score indicates a LH C# 8va in the 4th beat, she plays a C# E (same as beat 2 in the following measures)

Meas. 69 in the bass on beat 3 she plays an extra G# with the thumb.

Meas 75 she plays the resolved G# maj chord not on beat 2 as noted but on beat 3 concurrent with the beginning of the A flat (at least it sounds like she does this). This would make it similar (or consistent if you will) with the patterns in meas 71 - 74.

Same departure from scores in meas 79 where, in preparation for the right-hand smorzando figure on beat 4, she plays an E flat twice rather than the D natural (interestingly enough similar to the figure in meas 4 which is written as a repeated E flat.)

In all these instances, I don't know if they were indicated in a particular edition or just an interpretive decision by the performer - maybe you could find a way to e-mail her and ask. It does seem as if students today are becoming very obsessed with their desire to know the exact intentions of a composer. I always appreciate even an eccentric interpretation if it is consistent and holds together. I wish I was more of an expert on editions. You could get your hand on the Chopin Institute (Paderewski)  edition - they have an extensive narrative section on each piece where they note measure-by-measure discrepancies in the 3 or 4 existing manuscripts and defend their decision to print the version they do. My edition of the Waltzes has 3 entirely different versions of one of the Waltzes (some more flowery than others). I think there is even a Youtube that I viewed once where a performer plays two versions of the same Waltz for comparison. Good luck with your research.

[gerry]

Your welcome - glad to have been of help.