Chopin's Mazurkas - Joseffy vs Alfred Masterworks

[shoshkalson]

Hi all,

I'm going to start working on the Chopin Mazurkas (after a long, long break).

I know that the recommended editions are either Ekier or Paderewski, but my husband will kill me if I spend much more on music at this time.

I have the Joseffy edition which doesn't seem to be very highly regarded these days.

I can get the Alfred Masterworks edition quite cheaply ($9.99 on Kindle).

Is the Alfred edition a real improvement over the Joseffy?

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Shoshana

[goldentone]

I would not hesitate to go with Joseffy as editor over the Alfred edition.

[samdm93]

I have a few of the Alfred editions of Chopin's works and I personally love them. They're very good value and are good quality for what you pay for them. Most of them are edited by Willard A. Palmer who does a great job at retaining the copy-text and differentiating his own editorial material from the original. They're nicely laid-out and the bigger editions (Mazurkas, Polonaises) are ring-bound so they stay open on your piano stand. Also, they include length introductions, performance notes, and program notes which are all nice additions.

I don't own the Joseffy edition, but a quick Google confirmed for me that I'd still prefer the Alfred edition. Firstly, it's published by Schirmer who's editions I find too compact and the printing is sometimes small. The selling point of the Alfred is that they're newly engraved, whereas the Joseffy is just a reprint of a much older edition.