OK, I'm gonna 'fess up. Just curious if anyone else does this...

[dmc]

When playing Chopin's Heroic Polonaise, I occasionally add another voicing to his chords.  Usually I do so, to add emphasis.  For example the main theme (I'm assuming EVERYONE knows it) starts with Ab octaves in the LH.  I will sometimes add the 5th in between these at what I perceive to be a high point in the piece.  Or I'll do it in the second half of the theme (Bb minor chords).

I admit its a very self-indulgent thing to do since Chopin didn't write it that way.  But I can't help myself (well I can, but I don't want to).  Its not the worst thing to do and only someone who knows the piece well would notice (like most folks on this forum).  Nonetheless, its not in the piece so I have a  guilty conscience about it.

Just wondering if anyone else ever takes liberties like this ?

[alpacinator1]

Is it possible to make that piece any more complicated than it already is?

[mike_lang]

It's okay - I perform Für Elise in octaves.

[houseofblackleaves]

I do that alot too, I know I shouldn't.

Especially in Liszt.

[dmc]

Is it possible to make that piece any more complicated than it already is?

Now THATS a good response !      Especially because for that very reason I can't really play the &$%#! thing very well anyway !

[thalberg]

Awww man, I thought this title looked so cool, but you're not fessing up to anything shameful, so there's no fun in it.  Can't you think of anything embarrassing to tell us about yourself?

[dmc]

Well my playing is pretty much an embarassment (trust me).....!   

[invictious]

As if the piece isn't already difficult enough, personally I feel that it is disrespect to the composer by doing this (but heck, I do that ALL the time, without thinking, meh).

I do that only when practicing, but during performance/recital/exam, I play it as indicated.

[quantum]

Somewhat unrelated but this adding of the 5th in LH octaves is welcomed in Ragtime music. 

It essentially emulates a bass note 1 8ve lower than that played due to the outlining of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th partials of the harmonic series. 

[bench warmer]

The honorable way out of the situation, when some notes have been added, deleted or approximated by the performer (like me) and usually UNINTENTIONALLY is to announce:

"Now that Polonaise was written mostly by Chopin" or "This piece is generally how Chopin wrote it"

 Sometimes I announce this BEFORE I play it. 

[spaciiey]

I do that quite a lot. But only when I'm playing for myself... or when I'm playing music as a crowd pleaser. Or if I dont know the music and I have to play I cheat and simplify it. Most of them know nothing about music so they are none the wiser anyway.

But of course I play properly for proper recitals, examinations and so on.

[dmc]

Actually this segues into something I read the other day about Richter.  I got this from Wilkepedia so take it for whatever its worth.

Richter's belief that musicians should "carry ... out the composer's intentions to the letter," led him to be critical of others and, most often, himself.  After attending a recital of Murray Perahia, where Perahia performed Chopin's Third Piano Sonata without observing the first movement repeat, Richter asked him backstage to explain the omission. Similarly, after Richter realized that he had been playing a wrong note in Bach's Italian Concerto for decades, he insisted that the following disclaimer/apology be printed on a CD containing a performance thereof: "Just now Sviatoslav Richter realized, much to his regret, that he always made a mistake in the third measure before the end of the second part of the 'Italian Concerto'. As a matter of fact, through forty years -- and no musician or technician ever pointed it out to him -- he played 'F-sharp' rather than 'F'. The same mistake can be found in the previous recording made by Maestro Richter in the fifties."

I guess he wouldn't appreciate my liberties with Chopin would he ?

[amanfang]

I just played the Mendelssohn Variations Serieuses on a program, and at the very end with the long sweeping d7 arpeggio, I double it all the way at the 6th instead of stopping where it goes to single notes.  I love the thrill.

[gerry]

I look at the "added" note thing as an extension of turn of the century (19-20th) performance practice when pianists were "barn-storming" around the world having to impress the uninitiated with their virtuosity on often inadequate instruments. In Chopin's Etude Op 25 #12 Brailowski used to pound out full chords in both hands at the beginning of each 2-measure ascending/descending arpeggio pattern; I have also heard some of the older masters today occasionally adding the fifth into the bass octave patterns of pieces. This affectation often seems to carry with it a slight hint of ennui on the part of the performer--as if they have played it so often and are so jaded that they need to begin adding these things to keep their interest alive.

I tolerate these affectations in only the most polished and confident of performances but find it pretentious for developing pianists to attempt them as they usually seem an attempt to cover and impress in an otherwise inadequate performance. I've tried it and, while it's fun to do in private, I invariably come to the conclusion that what the composer intended is just just fine as is.

[theodore]

The young Beethoven:

This was the premier performance of the new Kreutzer sonata opus 47 for violin and piano with Beethoven at the piano and George Bridgtower playing violin:
             
Beethoven delivered the new sonata movements to Bridgetower only the day before the performance.  The first movement was huge, to be opened with solo double stopping across all four strings of the violin.

A  glittering audience assembled for the premiere of the new piece - including  the British ambassador, Prince Lichnowsky, Prince Lobkowitz and other  patrons of the arts. The performance began.

In bar 35 of the first movement, Beethoven had written a huge run  for piano, spanning several octaves. It comes in a passage  marked  'to be repeated'.  In the repeat, after Beethoven executed the run, Bridgetower imitated it on the violin.

Beethoven looked up from the piano in astonishment, ran across the stage, embraced Bridgetower, and uttered these suprising words: “Noch einmal meine lieber Bausch” or in Eng: “once more my dear boy”.  Bridgetower obliged.  Beethoven then ran back to the piano and they continued playing the remainder of the first movement.

The performance was a triumph. At celebrations afterwards, Beethoven announced he was dedicating this new violin sonata to Bridgetower. He wrote on top of the title page of the manuscript: “Sonata per uno mulattico lunattico”.

Theodore