To my knowledge, and any archival records available, it has proven impossible to play this etude without wrong notes. Even Pollini in his prime would have about a dozen notes wrong or missing. Other icons of the keyboard, Richter or Asheknazy, had far more. And Cortot has about 50% wrong notes (at least in his late recordings). I imagine it must have driven these pianists nuts not to able to master this beast. I guess what I want to say: Don't despair!
But it's not a stunt - it's a beautiful piano piece.
Agreed, which is why i used to cheat.Thal
I saw it performed entirely with TWO hands. And the left hand was doing much more than sustaining octaves...
I am 71 and can still play this etude fairly well almost with no practice. I'm not bragging at all, but when I was about 14 I became crazy with Chopin's compositions esp Polonaise in A flat. Soon thereafter I discovered the Etudes and I thought Op 10 #1 was "easy" in all my innocence then. Yes, there are stretches (c-f-c-f going up; and melodic top notes at the end going down) but the faster you play the easier they get. You can't play c-f-c-f slowly; you must leap, slap the notes and flex your wrist a bit. Hey I'm no musician; more an amateur pianist type.
That's what I implied in my remark about "slow" practice. Whether it is real, or just in my imagination, the momentum of the arm going up and down aids in the execution. I find it awkward trying to "slow" practice c-f-c-f stretches.
If you can do it fast but cannot do it slow then you do something wrong there. But first, one should be very careful with "momentum of the arm", as it (from my experience) can give a wrong message to some folks. You know, it is like "arm weight"--everybody talks about it, while only very few have some idea as for what it is. In essense, there is no arm momentum in this etude. There is rather very flexible wrist and arm just follows it.Second, unless you have very small hand there are no stretches there, or at least one should not treat them as such, as psycologically it creates more difficulties. On those wider figurations rather slightly twist your hand clockwise, so the 4th comfortably reaches C with no stretch.Third, re-group hard passages from the wide position (i.e. CGCE-CGCE) to a narrow one (i.e. C-GCEC-GCEC, etc.). This (again plycologically) will remove many difficulties (did I mention that etude needs a smart approach )Best, M
On those wider figurations rather slightly twist your hand clockwise, so the 4th comfortably reaches C with no stretch.
What does "twist your hand clockwise" mean?
supination means rotating the hand towards a palm up configuration, such as one would use to hold a cup of soup, which is the mnemonic used by many med students. pronation is palm down. for the right hand, supination is clockwise, for the left counter.
I performed the piece Sunday morning for a church service. I was curious to see how performance anxiety would affect the piece, but overall, I think I pulled it off nicely. I haven't had too many problems recently, but bar 31 still catches me up every time. The stretch between the 4th and 5th fingers of the right hand from "A" up to "E flat" is difficult to maneuver because of the nasty B-flat in the way of the fourth finger...
Why always bar 31? I find 30 and 32 far more challenging!
I'm working on this too! Bar 31 I decided to use 3 instead of four.
At measure 17 of the Opus 10 no. 1, one is somewhat invited to experiment with fingering the right hand as 1345, and so on. Is anybody out there using 1345-type fingering for any of the arpeggios, and if so, how do they like it?
It is so hard, becouse Chopin used very light piano and it was much easier for him and his students to play it I suppose.
I've never been convinced by that. What's easier? A springy Yamaha action or an ancient upright with a super-light action? I imagine Chopin's pianos were closer to the latter.
I think its easier becouse the keys are not going so deep if you know what i mean. You can try play it on keyboard and you see it's much easier. Ofc Chopin piano wasn't as light as keyboards, but was much lighter than our pianos. The other thing is to play it with the right articulation, but technically it was much easier for him, I suppose.
1-2-4-5 works well for me; I've never felt the need to try 1-3-4-5, but after I read your post, I did, and it just didn't feel "right." As always, everyone has a different hand.
1-3-4-5 freaks me out in that piece. That is probably the only fingering I avoid (except in one or two cases). For the a minor bit (I think that's what you were referring to as m17), I stick with 1245. I find the the C and the E way too hard to voice with 3 and 4, 2-4-5 has way more stability, and thumb to index has SO MUCH flexibility!
I think the challenge in this Etude is to learn how to cope with "extended" hand positions in the RH WITHOUT injuring your hand. Secret:avoid overly extending...holding on to notes longer than you need to.How to do this? Learning to make the "leap" between fingers. Practicing slowly, you say. Ok the danger in this is that we tend to want to play the arpeggio LEGATO when we practice it slowly. What we need to train our hands to do via the brain...is from the first note in the RH Play the thumb..release the thumb quickly and the second finger LEAPS to the G ...and this is the catch: RELEASE the thumb IMMEDIATELY and leaping at the same time to G with 2nd finger. You work thru the whole arpegiated figure RELEASING the previous finger.... using this approach SLOWLY. What you want to avoid like the plague is unconciously holding on to the previous note and therefore setting up tension which can murder your hands. Trust me: Chopin's NEW piano technique takes full advantage of the sostenuto pedal! So don't think you have to FIRST play everything legato THEN use the pedal as in the old school pre Chopin days. Once you've imprinted the feeling of playing the arpeggio's with no tension you can begin to speed things up gradually. Hint: Take only ONE of the arpeggio patterns to get the FEELING in your hands. Think of it as programming your brain . Eventually playing the patterns will become automatic and you'll do it with ease. One way of thinking of it traditionally: open hand / closed hand positions over and over in the RH.Results will NOT happen overnight..this is a long haul practice. Patience..not forcing. Take small sections of the piece...work on those...you might find the most difficult arpeggio pattern and spend time working on just that. Fluency will allow for freedom to express.