heroic polonaise tempo?

[swagmaster420x]

hi what is a good tempo for this piece? everything after first page seems hard to play at a moderately fast tempo because of all the hand stretching chords + finger tying thirds etc
ive noticed that performances of this piece tend to go pretty fast for the opening (1st page), then slow down/employ rubato to make it easier to play the main theme

[awesom_o]

[swagmaster420x]

Hmm, what a singular interpretation. Don't most pianists tend to conform to the prevalent understanding of how a piece is played?

[j_menz]

Don't most pianists tend to conform to the prevalent understanding of how a piece is played?

Only the ones wasting their (and everyone else's) time playing it.

On your original question, Chopin uses 4 different tempi for his Polonaises - Maestoso, Allegro Maestoso, Allegro ma non troppo and Allegro.  Maestoso is more a mood than a tempo, but it's at the very slow end of Allegro in this context, and whilst it changes subtly through the piece, the basic tempo doesn't alter much - no change is indicated by Chopin (except appassionata at some point).

[swagmaster420x]

Only the ones wasting their (and everyone else's) time playing it.

On your original question, Chopin uses 4 different tempi for his Polonaises - Maestoso, Allegro Maestoso, Allegro ma non troppo and Allegro.  Maestoso is more a mood than a tempo, but it's at the very slow end of Allegro in this context, and whilst it changes subtly through the piece, the basic tempo doesn't alter much - no change is indicated by Chopin (except appassionata at some point).

im thinking heroic polonaise is like 80-90 bpm? The tempo actually fluctuates a lot when people play it. It gets especially quick in the opening section, where people reach allegro speeds but I think most of the piece is slower than that.

[awesom_o]

Just play it as well as Bozhanov, but find your own interpretation! Then you'll be good!