Dolce sforgato might best be translated as "singing sweetly, softly and delicately in a light manner".
In his lifetime Tausig visualized this barcarolle as a love scene in a gondola. I've never seen it that way, rather as a ship leaving port for the open sea.
Having never formally studied the piece, but looking at the score, I would probably do the following: 1) Maintain the p dynamic in the RH, as no change is indicated by the composer; 2) play the LH at pp, as it is accompaniment, not the foreground there; 3) play both hands legato yet leggiero; 4) execute crecs. and decresc. following the "contours" of the flow and ebbing of the RH as it ascends and descends on the ocean swells; 5) probably lean back on the bench a little to make my arms lighter and floating on air during the execution; 6) apply the soft pedal throughout; 7) reluctantly follow Chopin's pedaling indications for sustaining pedal through whole measures with no pedal changes--including pedaling through the rests. My sense is that if you are truly playing dolce sforgato, and despite the many chromatic passing tones in this short bridging section, you can perhaps get away with so much pedal, since much of the passagework is in the high registers of the keyboard, which is far more forgiving in this kind of pedaling, particularly with the LH being scrupulously muted. I'd certainly try it (but didn't have a chance to do so before writing this!). If on a modern piano it posed any major concern, I would certainly alter the pedal treatment to some extent.
In this programmatic barcarolle, note how this section begins at the Meno mosso where it seems the wind has died down and the ship's momentum has slowed momentarily. The RH passagework suggests the "luffing" or rippling of the sails as the sailors trim them to catch the wind from a different angle, and finally leads to the Tempo I reprise (where the winds pick up, fills the trimmed sails once again, and the ship confidently lurches forward into the swell). How would I know this? As a kid I spent a lot of time in a sailboat on the ocean getting the salt water spray as well as playing piano! Thus, this transitional passage strikes me as that quiet, tentative moment as the ship tacts and is put on a new heading.
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