treatment of scale in bar 59 of Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor, op post.

[kalairajah]

Can someone advice on how best to play the scale in bar 59? Do you play this evenly or do u slow down on the way up and accelerate on the way down?

Thanks

[rmbarbosa]

we must play it evenly. Dont slow nor accelerate.
This scale is like a cry of despoir, I think.
Best wishes
Rui

[kalairajah]

Thanks Rui:)

[jimroof]

Can someone advice on how best to play the scale in bar 59? Do you play this evenly or do u slow down on the way up and accelerate on the way down?

Thanks

Play it how you feel it. 

All musical notation is an APPROXIMATION of what the composer has in mind.  When Chopin shows a flourish that is notated as a group of 5, followed by a group of 7, then a group of 3, it is NOT meant to be played that way.  It is meant to be played more with a spirit of improvisation than one of careful and studious execution. 

Your particular case is a single group of 35 played over 4 8th notes. 

My advice?  The A lines up with the C# in the l.h. and two bears later, the G# lines up with the C# at the start of the next measure.  What happens in between should be governed by your own sense of musicianship.  It may indeed sound wonderful to hear these notes all strung out like a perfect strand of pearls.  But this takes away any sense of spontaneity from the performance.  I would think a slight accelerando to the top then a slight deccelerando to where you land would work well.  I could also hear this as starting quickly, reaching the peak as if an apogee, then falling back down to the G#.

There are two things you know for sure, where it starts and where it ends.  I would encourage you to make what it in between something that is not bound to a metronome, but rather to your own sense of musicianship.