Chopin Prelude Op.28 No.4

[davidcook1988]

Hello Everyone,

This piece has just been posted by someone else on here so this probably isn't the best timing on my part.

Nevertheless, please check out my performance of Chopin's E-minor prelude and leave feedback if you wish!

[chopinlover01]

Overall pretty nice performance. Some notes-
1) Let the left hand lead a little more, odd as that sounds. You want the top voice to come out, to counterpoint the melody. Chopin was actually very into counterpoint, check out his a minor fugue for evidence of that
2) Get a baby grand, if at all possible! My reason being- the una corda pedal is very useful for this prelude. That, and it will give an overall richer sound, and you will progress faster on a grand piano than an upright or keyboard, even a full 88 weighted key hammer action one.
3) You were doing a good job of this- but be aware of having the melody much louder than the accompaniment- the top voice of the LH should be counterpointing, but discreetly. Let those voices be in between the softer chordal accompaniment and melody. My general rule is, have the LH be at pianissimo, and RH at somewhere about metzo forte. The top voice should be somewhere in between.
4) Make sure you're aware of your phrasing
Great performance, even still! Just tweak those, and if you hate the results, forget it Ultimately, it's your piece. Chopin wrote it, now it's yours to take care of.

[rachfan]

Hi David,

I think you've accomplished a lot in this piece.  I just want to share some of the performance practices to keep in mind as you play this prelude.  

First, the character of this prelude is that of a lament.  So think of the long melodic line as being cantabile, that is, as if it is being sung by a soprano.  

Built into the structure is a device that we call the "sigh motif". Wherever there is a lament, there can be sighs!  To the eye they are not immediately evident here because Chopin didn't write them as two-note slurs in the right hand, but instead placed them within his overall phrasing.  So looking at the first line at the top of the page, the sigh appears in the first full measure--the C on the 4th beat dropping down to the B in the following measure.  Then in that second measure, the C to B is repeated. And it happens again in the 4th beat of the 3rd measure and occurs again in the 4th measure where the C again drops to B in a sigh.  

Notice too that in all these cases above, the sigh crosses a bar line. Chopin sends a message that the predominant member of any sigh is the higher of the two notes in the sigh.  The lower second note is more subdued. What Chopin wanted to achieve with the sighs was to support the sound of a lament, but also he did not want the second note in the sigh being an emphasized downbeat of any measure.  Just the opposite--he wanted the more pronounced sound on the higher note of the sigh prior to the bar, never the lower note. Another way of saying  this is to shape to the high notes in the sighs.

I want to comment on the left hand accompaniment.  You're doing a good job of keeping it fairly quiet as it's mostly background, not foreground.  Chopin calls for variable voicing of the chords. You bring those out well too.

To best manage the quietness of the left hand chords, play them all "inside the keys". What I mean is that as you take each chord with its correct voicing including the repetitive chords, don't allow the keys to fully rebound upward to their natural rest position.  Rather you play the chords within the already partially depressed keys. Try it.  I play an acoustic piano, but I believe this technique might will work on a digital piano too.

On measure 12: Best to play it without pedal as there are passing and neighboring tones there that can clash. Always play for clarity.

In measure 16, stretto means tension, but no need to hurry the turn going to the G. It can be played a little more leisurely.  

Just before the coda in measure 23, the harmonic note to voice is the A# at the bottom of the chord.

I hope this is helpful.

David