Chopin prelude 28-4

[outin]

I have a bit of a dilemma here…

I originally learned this piece last year from a sheet I printed somewhere in the net. Now that I started again I have been using my ABRSM book, because it’s more handy to carry around with all the pieces I work on in the same book.

On measure 12 I have always played crescendo-diminuendo as in my original score. Now in the ABRSM book it’s only crescendo. So I listened to recordings (I have 7 different versions) and it varies. Found a manuscript online and there is no diminuendo.

But I still like it better with the diminuendo, even though this might not be what dear Fred intended. It is possible that my image of the piece is influenced by the first recording I heard many years ago. But I don’t know if I really mind. We know from the accounts of his contemporaries that Chopin himself didn’t play his pieces in the similar way every time, as was customary on those days. Also the instruments were so different that we wouldn't sound the same anyway.

I think the scholar work that is done on original manuscripts is important and interesting, but in the end, does it really matter, if we play things a bit different today? No-one would expect a jazz standard to be similar by different performers, quite the opposite.

I guess I just don’t care about authorities that much, so I think I will just play it the way I like it, no matter how much I respect the creator...