Chopin Scherzo No. 1, Op. 20 - the Polish Christmas Carol

[bach_ko]

Recently I have decided to make a better recording of my old repertoire for future use. I am learning back Chopin Scherzo no.1 that I played in 2007. I noticed that there are some strange dynamic markings appeared in other editions which is different from the one I learned (Schirmer). In the middle section (of Schirmer), there is a long cresc. being carried straight through to bar 4 while Peters edition has < > within the first two bars. Does anyone know which one is correct?

[bach_ko]

https://img252.imageshack.us/content_round.php?page=done&l=img252/3563/scherzo.jpg

[birba]

The schirmer's is strange and complicated.  I have an edition like the peter's.  I think the editor of the schimer's went a little haywire in trying to put HIS interpretation across.

[stevebob]

The schirmer's is strange and complicated.  I have an edition like the peter's.  I think the editor of the schimer's went a little haywire in trying to put HIS interpretation across.

I had the very same reaction ... but to the sample from the Peters version (ed. Scholtz).   

I just had a look at Chopin’s First Editions Online, and the dynamics in the original French, German and English editions for this passage are far closer to the “Schirmer” pictured above (actually Mikuli’s edition, though Joseffy’s, also published by Schirmer, isn’t significantly different).

I also consulted the Paderewski edition, and the hairpins there do resemble Scholtz’s instead (i.e., crescendo in the first bar, decrescendo in the second bar).  There’s no acknowledgment of this discrepancy in the endnotes, though, so I wonder what the source was.

For what it’s worth, Scholtz’s notation of the melody as an inner voice (with extra noteheads of prolonged value and/or additional stems) is his own contrivance; it typifies the aggressive overediting found in his editions of Chopin.

[birba]

Very interesting.  I too think that extended value of the melody notes is an editorial contrivance.  I think the first editions probably had those dynamics like the Mikuli.  But the autograph like the paderewski.  But we all know that the autograph isn't always the bible.  Chopin, himself, would correct the first editions.