Chopin, Prelude, Op. 28, No. 4 in Em

[rachfan]

This prelude is built on a "sigh motif".  It can be very effective in a small group of preludes as part of a recital program. 

[piano121]

Do you know this prelude was one of the chopin´s prefered pieces? And it was played during his funeral? Quite interesting... being one of the most simple pieces, played by lots of students, when starting studing the piano, I never gave it much respect. It took me years to realize that the beauty of this piece actualy lies in its simplicity. When I payed more atention to the melodic line itself and the harmony, I noticed its not less interesting tan it is in any of his etudes, or impromptus. The diference here is that he wrote a very constrict acompaniement, instead of the habitual flourished ones. So if you bring this piece to the "melodic level", it´s realy a very very beatiful trip. That ends on a sort of empty place. somewhere still to be explored. Maybe that´s why he liked it so much. sort of a rare small jewell.

[piano121]

just on the technical side of it... It´s nice to hear it in a commom piano. . I mean, Chopin composed this piece in a upright Pleiel, Am I right? I keep wandering what was the actual sond of his piano. Probably it was more like this Piano than the standard Steinway we usualy hear in professional recs. Not that its not beautiful this way, but it´s interesting seeing a difert take, in a more common piano.

A Qeustion, You play the last chord, way stronger than the indication pp on the end. I have hear it before in other recordings. Is there any particular reason? I used to play it realy super ppp

Thanks for sharing!

[rachfan]

Hi piano121,

Yes, I've always loved this prelude, its like a lament.  In fact, I played it in my senior year recital with a couple of other preludes.  I knew that Chopin loved this prelude too, but was unaware that it was played at his funeral.  That is an interesting bit of history. 

Like the other preludes, this one too is a "mini-etude".   There are some advanced technical aspects involved.  For example, to keep the LH accompaniment as quiet as possible, you have to play the chords legatissimo "inside the keys", that is, not allowing the keys, once depressed, to return to normal level at rest.  Also in the LH, you have to carefully voice only the changes in harmony as they occur to differentiate the new sound from the purely repetitive chords.  So there is variable voicing in the LH, sometimes focusing on the lowest note, sometimes the middle voice, and occasionally the top voice.  Because of that, you have to think of the left hand chords in a horizontal rather than a vertical way, given the shifting harmonies.  In the LH, there can also be a natural tendency to consider the last chord in each measure as a launchpad into the next measure, which, should it occur, will destroy the serene effect overall.  Similarly, any accents in the bass must be avoided.   This might be a piece of simplicity, but performing it involves a lot of thought and concentration.

On your observation of my playing the last chord louder than pp, you are correct.  I believe my logic was the necessity of fighting tone decay in sustaining the whole note chords under fermatas.  So I boosted the volume a bit as an offset.  But I also think that within the mood of the lament, it also conveys more of a sense of finality of loss rather than just a whimper.  A matter of interpretation, I guess.  Whenever two pianists play the same piece, the renditions will always be somewhat different.  That's why a pianist never has to worry about personality or individuality in his or her playing.  That will be automatically infused into a piece without the pianist conciously dwelling on it.  That's what makes performance so interesting!

[rachfan]

Hi piano121,

Here's the interesting story on the piano:  My piano is a 1983 Baldwin Model L grand (6'3").  (Prior to that I owned a Steinway Model M, 5'7", for a long time.)
As you know, for decades Steinway and Baldwin were the two major competitors in the U.S. for artist grands and concert hall pianos.  So the Baldwin is of very high quality, the SF1 (7'), for example, being considered Tier 1 by Larry Fine in his book.  But here is where the story takes an odd twist.  Around 1982 Yamaha introduced their Model S4 grand, also 6'3" to challenge Baldwin's market niche.  The sound of the S4 was more powerful than Baldwin's, but not better.  (Steinway in NY had their Model L, only 5'10" and their B, 6'11", so did not compete in that category.)  Baldwin panicked at the Yamaha introduction and made the dire mistake of altering the characterists of their own L, robbing it of its design intent and signature sound.  And, as time went on, the piano got brighter and more shrill.

But my piano is about to be restored to its intended glory.  I had correspondence with Del Fandrich who was a design engineer at Baldwin for years.  He knows those pianos inside and out.  In fact, he found the original plans for the Model L from 1901, I think, got approval from management, and built the piano from scratch using those original plans and specifications.  The engineers and technicians at the factory were dumfounded by the beauty of the resulting piano sound.  He said it had a superb blending quality that made it ideal as an ensemble instrument, say with a string quartet.   But in 1983, the model was bastardized.   I can well remember the older sound of the Baldwin's, and what appears on my recordings is not it!

To restore it to its real intended sound, which is actually a bit darker than a Steinway, we'll NOT use Baldwin's Synchatone II copper-wound bass strings; rather it'll be Arledge Bass Strings.  The steel strings will be Mapes IG wire.  Nor will we be using Renner Blue hammers that Baldwin specifies today.  To restore the sound, it'll be Ronsen Wurzen hammers.   Hopefully, this project can get underway this August.  I'm very excited about it!  Hey, once I break it in, who knows, maybe I'll make some new recordings!