Best Edition of the Chopin Etudes

[xhunterjx]

I am having a hard time deciding which edition of the Etudes to buy.  I am specifically trying to decide between the Cortot edition, the Paderewski edition, and the Henle Urtext edition.
In your opinion, which is superior and why?

[mike_lang]

I like the Cortot - it has good legato fingerings and helps give me ideas in solving technical problems, even of the smallest order.

Best,
ML

[quantum]

I use Paderewski.  The detailed notes in the back of sources from manuscripts, manuscript copies and first editions is quite useful.  Fingerings from both editors and Chopin are included. 

I find Henle tends to favour variants from the German sources, and provides less verbose explanations of why they were chosen over others.  Sometimes Henle can appear overconfident in their editorial choices - this becomes more apparent when you compare Henle side by side with other editions. 

I haven't examined Cortot in detail. 

I would recommend Paderewski or the more recent Jan Ekier edition.  The Ekier is a high quality scholarly edition. 

[Floristan]

Ekier.  It's expensive but worth it.

[Waldszenen]

Henle. While their editorial marks are occasionally a little vague (more so in Chopin than any other composer, for whatever reason), I still find them to be the most reliable and consistent.

[ihatepop]

Cortot...I agree with ML

ihatepop

[counterpoint]

Cortot...I agree with ML

ihatepop

The Cortot Edition is interesting, if you already have a normal Urtext Edition - but not as a single or first source. There are many little changes of Chopin's original text, so you can't rely on Cortot's Edition.

[mike_lang]

The Cortot Edition is interesting, if you already have a normal Urtext Edition - but not as a single or first source. There are many little changes of Chopin's original text, so you can't rely on Cortot's Edition.

Yes, let me say that I was taught using the Paderewski at first, which is a very good edition, but it was only once I began studying at the university level that I used Cortot.  It is true that there are sometimes questionable omissions or variants in the Cortot edition, and so it is not the most scholarly (for that we rely on urtexts). 

The reason that I find it most useful at this point is because of its pedagogically-oriented commentary.  If you can afford it, it is nice to own the Cortot as a supplement to whatever other edition you may have.  On op. 25 no. 6, for example, there is a table of fingerings for several of the major passages in thirds, in case the standard 14-25 does not fit your hand.  On every etude there are example of exercises that one can do to isolate (and magnify) particular technical problems found throughout the piece.