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Topic: Some Examples of Poor Chopin Pedal Editing  (Read 1560 times)

Offline keyboardclass

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Some Examples of Poor Chopin Pedal Editing
on: September 20, 2010, 06:52:05 AM
The first is not bad but the pedal starts too soon (Klindworth).  The second (once you know Chopin's style) is poor (Mikuli)  The third is Schlesinger's first edition (the others are wrong).  Yesterday I played it (Mazurka Op.6. No.4) from my ABRSM edition which was obviously based on either Mikuli or another first.  I knew instinctively it was wrong.  Chopin often uses the pedal for its loudness effect overriding any harmonic blurring that it brings about (in this instance Gb/G).

Notice Mikuli gets the LH echo theme's phrasing wrong (as does my ABRSM edition).  Best to leave it alone as Schlesinger does (what presumably Chopin wanted as all the first editions agree there - Chop is telling us with the accent over beat 3 bar 2 that we have a beginning of a phrase RH but end of a phrase LH.  This explains the lack of an accent on the first note of the piece).