Chopin Nocturne in C# Minor, posthumous Tips on playing

[eyeballnick]

Subject says all.... ty

[phil13]

Any particular part?

Be sure to speed up in the 3/4 mazurka-like section, or else it just drags.

Work on the scales at the end carefullly, especiallythe 35:4 one.

And this is a good idea I found out by accident:

Listen to Chopin's Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor. This nocturne was kind of like a melting pot for the ideas he eventually used in the concerto. The mazurka section in the nocturne becomes the dance in the middle of the 3rd mvt., the Adagio arpeggio is the last measure in the 2nd mvt., and if you listen closely, there's a lot of other direct parallels.

Listen to how the pianist plays those sections, and it should give you some ideas on how to interpret them in the nocturne.

Phil

[pianohenry]

yep would say the same thing - the most difficult bit is the long scales at the end.

also there are some long trills in the right hand that go on for (i think the longest is 2 bars) - make sure they dont sound bad and that you can sustain them evenly and very very very lightly for that long, while keeping the left hand even but not too slow cos otherwise that drags on too

[thierry13]

Since this piece is very far away in my memory , lol, the only thing I can suggest now is that for Performance, do not fear to hit the keys too loud(for the melody principaly). It better be a bit louder than it should be than a missed, colourless and poor sound. Remember you should allways use all the weight you can on the keys, simply reducing the attack speed to get that nice lyrical "p" sound. Of course it isn't that simple, but it is a good thing to remember