Hi Marg,
Good progress has been made. You play more confidently with reliable articulation and touch. There is more musicality present with some nice nuances. I'm impressed with the improvements you've made!
But... still too many big washes of pedal. I took out the score (Paderewski Edition). The Editorial Committee for the Paderewski Edition elected to print the pedal markings as found in the original manuscripts, while recognizing that pedal effects will vary by the instrument, touch, tempo, and room acoustics, especially for the more resonant modern pianos. Given that, they mention that the pedal becomes an "individual matter" (that is, not a Chopin matter). Don't forget--you're co-creating this piece with Chopin. He's the composer but you're the interpreter. Recall in my last response, I mentioned that your own ears are the "high court"? That's what the Paderewski editorial board meant--you must use your own discretion on the pedal to attain clarity. I don't have an urtext edition here; however, I would imagine that they take the exact same approach--leaving Chopin's pedal markings as they are. Here's a suggestion:
Full measure 1 and 2: In the melody played with the RH 5th finger, at the bar line the melody goes from E flat to F, an interval of a 2nd within the same pedal as marked by Chopin. It probably worked famously on this 1840-ish Pleyel, but not so famously on today's Steinway pianos due to far improved volume and resonance. So I would release the pedal just before the bar line, take the new F tonality in a new pedal at the beginning of measure 2. At that point you have two options: hold the pedal down for that group of notes and change the pedal for the on-coming group; or, slowly release it as a half-pedal as you play that figure, then depress it for all the ensuing E flat tonality in the next group. There are many situations exactly like that in this piece. So if the next approaching group of notes is consonant, I would keep the pedal down just as Chopin indicated. But if there is dissonance approaching, I'd do either a separate new pedal or a half-pedal release lifting the pedal through the figure to spill out overtones before they begin clashing with one another like Roman gladiators. Experiment both ways to see which works best with your piano. As you do that be ever mindful of the overarching legato phrasing.
There are many principles and kinds of pedaling as you know. When it comes to avoiding blurring, here are two important principles to remember: 1) The higher in treble you a playing, the more forgiving the piano will be. And, 2) the softer you are playing, the piano will likewise be more forgiving. In this etude you're not playing in the high treble--no ledger lines to speak of really. The exception is the coda played leggierissimo where dynamics are pp to ppp with some crescendo-diminuendo in between. So the piano will help you there, but not through the greater part of the piece. (Well, a little is better than nothing, yes?) Wherever the dynamics are marked in gradations of soft, the piano will cut you some slack there even though you're in the low treble register.
Note that oftentimes the filigree (the accompaniment within the right hand) also changes in tonality. Chopin foresaw that issue and added more pedal changes to accommodate that particular problem. Look at measure 6 for example. So there you need only to pedal as indicated in the score.
I hope this is helpful.
David
Topic: Chopin op 25 n 1: a little step further (?)