Chopin Prelude 2

[outin]

I was reading through this and noticed that my Wiener Urtext has some weird fingerings for the RH. Finger substitutions that I see no need for. Bar 3: 4-5,2, bar 5: 2,5,3,2-5, Bar 8: 4-5,2 and so on. The performance notes say the legato is to be achieved with fingers, not the pedal. Obviously, but I still see no need for such fingerings. What am I missing?

The only other edition that I found with such finger substitutions is the Cortot. His are slightly different (and a bit more comfortable for my hands). The notes are in French, so I wonder if there's some reasoning there? Or is it just to make things more complicated because the RH is so simple? 

[daniloperusina]

I had to have a look at Cortot's edition so as to know what you are talking about.
Seeing that fingering in the score made it immediately obvious what the idea is.
Yes, there is indeed some reasoning there.

There is a tradition which could be called, for lack of a better definition, "the art of understanding each finger's character".

Chopin was perhaps the originator of this. Another great proponent was Artur Schnabel, who has written a great deal about this.

In the early 19th century there was perhaps two great "schools" of piano technique: that of Chopin and that of Liszt. Chopin believed in understanding and using the difference between each finger, while Liszt believed in making each finger equally capable and substitutable for any other. Hence, for example, Chopin's idea of introducing his new students to the B major scale first because of it's resemblance to the hands' physiognomy, while Liszt had ideas like practicing the Db major scale using the C major scale fingering, i.e 123-12345.

When it comes to slow melodies, as in prelude nr 2, the idea shows itself not in suggestions for ease of execution, but which finger is more suitable to give each note it's right character .
I'm sure that Cortot reasons that the first entry of the melody is such a clear third finger note. Only the third finger can get to the soul of that note. It's definitely not a fifth finger note in his mind. Therefore, third finger for the soul of it, then switch to the fifth in order to be able to reach next note using the second.

Ahh... those were the days of real keyboard poets!

[outin]

Oh, thanks! Yes, I've read about Chopin's idea of each finger being different, so that makes sense from that point of view.

The editor of my WU obviously did not agree with Cortot about which note belong to which finger...

[daniloperusina]

Yeah...
There are some editions by great pianists. Those who spring to mind is Schnabel's and Arrau's Beethoven sonatas, and, of course, Cortot's Chopin.
Not necessarily very ur-text, but certainly editions made by very great minds, and therefore always interesting to study!