Chopin Prelude No. 20 in C minor: C major or C minor in beat 4 of bar 3?

[johnlink]

I found several threads that discussed the issue of the final chord in bar 3 of Prelude No. 20, and it seems that there are plenty of players who do it each way. C major sounds right to me, not only because of the G7, C7 F min which precedes it (following the tonic dominant 7th C7, I hear the F min as the the minor subdominant of C major), but because of the D7 G7 D7,13 which follows. An E natural could be added to the D7,13 and hardly be noticed, and the A natural over the D7,13 further confirms the tonality of C major.

I'm a guitarist, vocalist, and arranger, not a pianist. I have arranged all 24 of Chopin's Preludes for five singers (soprano, alto, tenor, and two baritones), guitar, bass, and drums (plus violin for No. 16). I will soon be releasing a CD of the John Link Project performing my arrangements of the Chopin Preludes. In the meantime you can hear the forthcoming recording of Prelude No. 3 here: https://www.myspace.com/johnlinkproject That page also contains recordings of my arrangements of Preludes 4 and 6, but not the versions that will be on the CD.

[allthumbs]

All three editions that I have of this piece indicate C minor as the last chord. That's the way I would play it.

[mikebechstein]

I have only one printed edition of the preludes but I have 8 recordings by various pianists. It was interesting to compare the different approaches to such a short piece and the results of the chord in question  are:

Major - Bolet, Francois and Cortot

Minor - Tharaud, Blechacz, Argerich, Moiseiwitsch and Biret.

The only thing I think you can deduce from the above is that either approach is ok. 

(Not that it matters, but I prefer a major chord as well.)

Mike

[johnlink]

For whatever it's worth Barry Manilow votes for C major. Hear it here:

&feature=related

[allthumbs]

For whatever it's worth Barry Manilow votes for C major. Hear it here:

&feature=related

No it's C minor as well.

[johnlink]

No it's C minor as well.

I just listened again and beat 4 of bar 3 is clearly C major.

[xpjamiexd]

Well I personally always play a c minor but i played it and my teacher remarked "you played a wrong chord at the end". I prefer a C minor.