Complete Chopin Études

[perprocrastinate]

Has anyone here learned/performed the complete set?

I'd love to hear a recording, if not, at least hear about your experience learning it.

[h_chopin148]

I'm pretty sure awesom_o has. I myself have only played two Chopin etudes op 10 no 5 and 9.

[awesom_o]

I have just recorded the entire set in the last six months. The following is a blow-by-blow history of my learning and recording the entire set. During all of this time I was of course studying all manner of other things by all manner of other composers. This is *just* about the Etudes.

I started my first Etude from op. 10 around the age of 12 (op. 10/3). Over the next year or two , I learned three more from op. 10-no's. 1,4, and 12.  I couldn't play any of them 'that' well yet. I just didn't have the technique.

I started studying with a new teacher several years later, around age 16. I learned two more from op. 10, no's 2 and 5, and really focused on transforming my technique-this teacher was pretty hardcore about hand position, touch, and body alignment. He had studied with Curcio, and though he no longer performed, he was still in possession of a powerful technique.

Around this time, the other Chopin Etudes I had learned earlier began to sound better and better. Still nowhere near the professional level yet, but I was playing them regularly, and with much more reliability and command than I had been able to achieve previously.

After two years with this teacher, I went to school for piano performance. During my first two years, I learned the rest of the Etudes from op. 10 and concertized regularly with the entire set. Around this time I began to set my eyes on op. 25. The first one I learned was no. 6. One can learn that Etude in a day or two, but the time it takes to be able play it comfortably and musically...my goodness!

In my last year of school I learned the rest of op. 25 but didn't concertize with it yet.

I've always wanted to record the entire set, ever since childhood. It wasn't until over a year after playing all 24 in concert that I really began to focus on the recording project, in terms of my interpretations.

The project is now in its final stages. It is my first attempt at creating a professional recording.

Here are some of the fruits of my long labour:  

[awesom_o]

I actually think that every single Chopin Etude is as hard, if not even harder, than the one that precedes it.

Some of the ones that people tend to think of as being the easiest are in fact the most difficult to bring off at a high-level. Op. 10 no. 3,6, and op. 25 no. 1 come to mind particularly in this regard.

Despite their high-place in the repertoire, many people still consider the Etudes to be less-than-stellar examples of Chopin's musical art. Op. 10 no. 2 and 4, for instance, people think of as being crude finger-twisters rather than the supreme miniatures that they really are.

The poetry in every single one is astounding, even if it is only through studying each and every one yourself that this really becomes apparent. I think to do them any sort of justice, you have to first see them for the jewels that they actually are.

[faulty_damper]

Awesom_o, criticism, Op.10-1, left hand octaves: it sounds banging.  Make it more lyricalish.

[awesom_o]

I quite like them played with force.

[faulty_damper]

It sounds like banging which makes it sound angry.  If you think the piece is about anger, then that would be the right interpretation.  But I don't think it's about anger.

[perprocrastinate]

Oh, for the love of god, just get over whatever feud you have with each other and stop acting like children.

But thanks for sharing, awesom_o. I enjoyed the first five études.

[faulty_damper]

What feud?  There is no feud?  How could you think there's even a feud?  And I don't any of us are children.

[awesom_o]

Yeah he thought I just played the bass notes with too much fury for his taste.

A feud is more like where two families hate each other for generations.

But seriously, to me, there is a big difference between banging, and playing with great force. It's to do with the movements which are being used.

[perprocrastinate]

Well, okay.

Note to self: Recalibrate sardonicism detector.

[awesom_o]

I was never very good with sardonic. I'm sorry.


Glad you enjoyed the etudes though! I'm not gonna lie I worked pretty hard on them over the years....

[momopi]

Wow, awesome work, awesom_o. 

[awesom_o]

Thanks. Check out my composition!