Chopin mazurkas, preferred edition ?

[huaidongxi]

greetings.  presently considering a reasonably priced edition of the complete mazurkas.  for about twenty bucks, can get either the Chopin Institut (Warsaw) or the Edition Peters.  is the binding on the Polish edition as durable after repeated flattening for use, and the printing/font as clear, as the Peters ?  my technical ability to reproduce the scores is limited, so the finer details of which edition is superior musicologically are not as critical.  thanks in advance to your responses.

[visitor]

can you buy used? You can find 'new old stock' sold as 'used' on ebay and Amazon all the time, you might be able to buy both for about that much depending on the seller and how good a deal it is, or for that much you might be able to stretch in to a high end score like a schott , Weiner Urtext, Henle, PWM-Ekier, etc.

I like peters, they are decent, never had a problem w binding. I find the single pieces are staples so score staying open was not an issue and the Tchaikovsky and Liszt collections I looked at were nice enough  but I'd probably reinforce the binding.  I think nothing will really beat the sewn binding you see w/ Henle and similar in the tier. Glue will fail  you and youll end up taping pieces back together... (I just had that issue w some oldies in a couple old discontinued editions I have...)

You might see if Konemann Budapest  urtext ever did these, those are really nice scores, the Scriabin and Balakirev I have in those are really something, and they were dirt cheap

[huaidongxi]

dankon, visitor.  always looking for used, but with quality scores the best prices for the new usually aren't far off those for the v.good condition or better used in the better editions (sellers know the Henle will find the buyers).  concur about the Koenemann Budapest urtext editions, one of my best finds was their complete solo piano works of L.v.B in hardcover, but they're not widely available in the u.s., and the Chopin appears to be out of print.  have read positive responses to the Polish National Edition (Ekier edit.); they've split the mazurkas into those frederic published and the posthumously published, and the main volume will probably end up my pick.

[chrisbutch]

One drawback of the Polish Ekier series for me is that if anything they're 'overedited', particularly in the profusion of alternative fingering suggestions, which can make the page look messy and confusing. Possibly this is less of an issue with the Mazurkas (I haven't seen that volume) than some of the other sets, since generally they're technically fairly straightforward so don't pose too many fingering problems. Production standards of the Ekier editions are, however, otherwise very high.

[visitor]

Also for a complete set and 20 dollars, i cannot really find fault is alfred masterworks. If you want something that truely opens flat each time without damage to binding, you can take good set like these and swing by a fed ex kinkos or ups store or office depo etc and have them Apply a spiral binding then no issues w it, though if u go spiral get a metal spiral, i bought the etudes w the plastic. Tab spiral from alfred and the tabs broke so i would need to get it fixed

either its a decent option

[chrisbutch]

I should have added about Peters - the excellent Peters New Chopin Edition, overseen by Jim Sansom, has yet to reach the Mazurkas (so far only Waltzes, Preludes, Ballades, Impromptus issued). So the available Peters Mazurka edition is an old one.

[huaidongxi]

chrisbutch, visitor, dankon. yes, had heard positive things about the new edition in progress from Peters, which makes me less inclined to pick up one of their current versions.  have generally liked Alfred editions, and will include it in my shopping.  cheers.