Piano Forum

Hi lelle,

Despite the piano, I think you play this prelude with wonderful expression and poetry.  There is much to like in your rendition.  I appreciate your handling of the dynamic contours, that is, having the volume of sound rise as the figuration ascends, and tapering off the sound as it descends.  In this piece that technique is very effective.  

Starting on page 2, a very nice sotto voce effect.  You do A LOT with voicing.  So much of this piece is about voicing.  In measures 16-17 you voice the bottom notes of the thirds in the LH.  In 29-30 and the repetitions, you voice the bottoms of the first two double note chords in LH, then feature the tops in the next two double notes, and continue it throughout the storm.  And on page three in  measures 60-63 you voice the tops of the octaves and chords in the RH, then in 64 you shift to voicing the the second notes down from the tops of the chords.  Voicing middle voices is hardest, but you do it convincingly.

In measure 86 on the downbeat I hear you playing D flat with E flat.  In your edition is there also a G flat whole note at the top?  The Paderewski Edition has the G flat, and to me the voice leading from the G flat up to the B flat sounds better than from the E flat.  If it's not in your edition, you might want to pencil it in and try it, voicing the G flat at the top.

If I were to make one suggestion, I would say that your tempo is too fast. So many people play it that way, that my comment probably surprises you.  But if you really want to create the sense of a rainy day, slow the tempo down, and make the opening motif even more pronounced.  If you experiment with slower tempos, I think you'll be quite amazed by the result.  Chopin did not give a tempo marking in the score, leaving the pianist some license to interpret it for himself.

Fine playing, lelle.

David