Mendelssohn Songs Without Words, Opus 85, No. 4, "Elegy"

[mbdey]

All of the scores of this piece show minimal amounts of pedaling.  Yet, in listening to many recordings of this piece, it seems that most performers use the pedal throughout most of the piece.  Is it acceptable or even preferred, to alter the composer's intention in this way?  It is much more difficult to play the piece beautifully with predominantly finger legato.  Is that the reason it is performed with so much pedal?  What is correct?  Thank you for your thoughts.

[mjames]

Pedal markings are usually just suggestions, strict directions only really become a thing later for genres like spectralism or expressionism. It's not something you have to worry about (there are exceptions) when playing pre-1900 music. The only directions I would worry about are the "senza pedale" marks. I can assure you that the pedaling for this piece is completely up to you.