cross fingers or swap notes?

[glerzhus]

I was wondering if there's any good reason for keeping notes as they are if your hands are overlapping instead of swapping the notes to the other hand.  If you want to know exactly what i'm referring to, i'm working on Chopin's Op. 49 Fantaisie m. 23 and 25 both do this. I assume as long as it doesn't interfere with the voicing then you should switch notes to the other hand.

[lelle]

I don't think you "should" necessarily. You can if you want to. Hopefully it does not impact the musical result. You do, after all, need to trade voices between hands when playing some of the Bach fugues.

I typically play this sort of stuff as written unless I feel there is a good reason not to (if it's uncomfortable, for example). I like using physical gestures that follow the musical contents if I can, it just keeps me more in the music somehow. In this case, the "crossing" chords belong to one layer of the music with its corresponding voice leading and I like to consistently keep it in the same hand for that reason. Likewise, it keeps the left hand "um-pah" is another layer consistently played by one hand.

But I know some other pianists don't care for this approach and just distributes stuff as they feel is convenient.

[pianopro181]

I was wondering if there's any good reason for keeping notes as they are if your hands are overlapping instead of swapping the notes to the other hand.  If you want to know exactly what i'm referring to, i'm working on Chopin's Op. 49 Fantaisie m. 23 and 25 both do this. I assume as long as it doesn't interfere with the voicing then you should switch notes to the other hand.

If the only reason why you’re doing it is because you’re unable to achieve those passages technically with one hand when you should then yeah it’s a mistake and you’re also not giving yourself the chance to improve. Some sections in for example Prok 2 and also some hugely notey contemporary pieces then absolutely it would make sense to rearrange passages and most pianists do, but other than that you shouldn’t, with maybe the odd exception of certain notes within bars, but certainly not entire passages designed for one hand for no good reason. It would go against the composers intentions.

[pianopro181]

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[glerzhus]

no i wasn't wondering it for any technically challenging reasons.  i was just thinking why not do the easier one when given the option to but in the end i decided to cross the fingers anyway because it helped keep the same 'finger structure' during that theme.  but i do agree that avoiding things just because they are difficult is not the way to go.

[lelle]

in the end i decided to cross the fingers anyway because it helped keep the same 'finger structure' during that theme.

Good, succinct way to put it. Often when the composer was a skilled pianist themselves it's worth playing the way things are notated, because they knew what they were doing when they composed and notated the piece.

[transitional]

It's telling you to cross fingers for a reason - usually this helps the voices stay organized. First idea that comes to mind is measure 307 of hungarian rhapsody no 2 - the right hand crosses the left (or vice versa) to keep harmony consistent to play.

[quantum]

I would say, sound before score.  Choose the fingering that suits your hand and produces the sound that you want.

Say you were studying the piece to make an audio only recording.  What do you want to convey to the listener?  Would their response be: that pianist chose really good fingering, or that pianist was able to produce a really good sound.