Different types of legato?

[slobone]

I was practicing my Chopin mazurka the other day, and I suddenly realized there was more than one way to play the melody in the right hand (which is just a simple melody in small steps). There was the way I'd been playing it, which was to keep my fingers curved and bring down the tip of the finger at a 90 degree angle to the key. This produces a crisp but still legato effect, and is the way I normally play Bach.

Or -- I could flatten my fingers slightly and just move them the minimum amount to get from key to key. This was even more legato, if there is such a thing, and sounded more slurred or even blurred. The notes were quieter too.

So I'm in a quandary -- which is better? I can hear the difference when I play, but it's really a matter of taste, and I guess my taste hasn't developed that far yet, or something. Anybody have a preference or opinion?

PS It was Op 63/3. I'll add the sheet music snippet at the bottom if somebody tells me how to do it...

[thierry13]

Think not about the fingers. Think about the music. If you want to think about your fingers, you must first imagine a sound, and find what type of touch fits this imagined sound better. You must also know *why* does one type of touch creates a different sound than another, you must know all the parameters. Next you must create a movement, or set of movement, wich suits the imagined sound. Now you must know what fits the style of Chopin better. First you need to look at what you have, the score for example, and then you must listen to a lot of different interpretations of a lot of different Chopin works.

[slobone]

Listening to recordings is a good suggestion. Normally I agree that you have to think of the sound first, but in this case this was a sound I discovered by fooling around at the piano. I'm not sure I've ever heard that particular sound before. It's almost a "lazy" sound, but maybe it works for some composers. I'm so used to playing "crisply" that this new sound is hard to get used to.

Also, it doesn't really work for accented notes in a phrase, only for the notes in between that you want to de-emphasize.