FREDERIC CHOPIN, THE ETUDES PAN 107
(1810 - 1849)

Martha Goldstein, Piano (Erard, 1851) Opus 10 - Twelve Grand Etudes
dedicated to Franz Liszt, published 1833

        1:56    1-      C Major - Allegro       A manuscript copy of
                        this Etude and of the second Etude is dated
                        the day he left Poland for the last time,
                        November 2, 1830.
        1:20    2-      a minor - Allegro   A chromatic line Etude
                        to develop the third, fourth, and fifth fingers
                        of the right hand.
        3:56    3-      E Major- Lento, ma non troppo   Chopin
                        told his pupil Adolf Gutmann that he had
                        never written another melody like it.
        2:07    4-      c sharp minor - Presto    For a long time this
                        Etude was held to be the non plus ultra in
                        finger technique.
        l:4l    5-      G flat Major- Vivace    The right hand
                        plays only on the black keys.
        2:37    6-      e flat minor - Andante   A study in touch.
        1:27    7-      C Major - Vivace A toccata -   The study of
                        double notes changing on one key.
        2:25    8-      F Major- Allegro    The right hand flows in
                        cascades of technical brilliance w hile the left
                        hand carries the thematic material.
        1:48    9-      f minor - Allegro, molto agitato    A study
                        composed for Chopins friend Ignaz
                        Moscheles, to develop left hand stretches.
        2:27    1O-     A flat Major - Vivace assai   Hans von
                        Buelow wrote ot this Etude: The whole
                        repertoire of pianoforte music does not
                        contain a study so full of genius and fancy as
                        this particular one is universally
                        acknowledged to be, except perhaps Liszts
                        Feux- Follets.
        2:45    11-     E flat Major - Allegretto    Huneker calls
                        this Etude a musical Corot.
        2:35    12-     c minor- Allegro con fuoco   Supposedly
                        written in Stuttgard shortly after Chopin
                        received news of the taking of Warsaw by the
                        Russians September 8, 1831, this Etude is
                        popularly called The Revolutionary."

                        Opus 25 . Twelve Etudes
                        dedicated to
                        Madame la Comtesse dAgoull
                        published 1837
        2:15    1-      A flat Major- Allegro sostenuto   For this
                        Etude Schumann has given us the comparison
                        to the aeolian harp. Consider also the story
                        quoted by Kleczynski that Chopin said of this
                        study: "Imagine a little shepherd who takes
                        refuge in a peaceful grotto from an approaching 
                        storm. In the distance rushes the wind and the 
                        rain, while the shepherd gently plays a melody 
                        on his flute."
        1:23    2-      1 minor - Presto   This Etude (and number
                        1, A flat), was composed at Dresden in 1836
                        while Chopin was visiting the Vodzhinskis.
                        Schumann heard him play it there, and
                        described it as "charming, dreamy, and soft
                        as the song of a child singing in its sleep."
        :55     3-      F Major-Allegro    Known as the  "Cart wheel."
        1:40    4-      a minor - Agitato     Study in syncopation.
        2:57    5-      e minor - Vivace    Study in touch.
        2:00    6-      g sharp minor - Allegro    Study in thirds.
        4:20    7-      c sharp minor- Lento   The "Duo"  study.
        1:02    8-      D flat Major - Vivace   Study in sixths.
        :57     9-      G fiat Major - Allegro assal  "Butterfly" Etude.
        3:35    10-     b minor- Allegro con fuoco   Study in octaves.
        3:34    11-     a minor-Allegro con brio  "Winter Wind" composed 
                        in 1834.
        2:29    12-     c minor - Molto allegro, con fuoco  "The Ocean."

Chopin did not give titles to the Etudes.

The Chopin Piano

The immense importance to music of the instrument on which the music is played has not always been sufficiently stressed. The instrument directly influences musical composition, conditions it, and even inspires it, both by its capacities and by its limitations. In a sense, the instrument creates musical style, marking out its stages of development, rather as his building material does for the architect.

The invention of the double escapement mechanism of Sebastian Erard in 1822 transformed the technical capabilities of the Beethoven piano to make it a Chopin piano. The Etudes of Chopin were now possible because of this increase in performance. These early pianos sound different than the modern grand. They were designed for low string tension, with light strings, light bridge, and thin sound board. As a result, the produced tone is explosive and decays rapidly. The fast decay gives these pianos a special character. There is more clarity in fast passage-work than the modern grand. The early piano schools gave great emphasis to velocity, as it was a prerequisite for brilliance on these instruments.

The legato and sustaining powers of the instrument are limited compared to the modern grand. As a result slow movements were played faster, as attested by the metronome markings on the early editions of the Etudes. The pursuit of legato became a lifetime struggle for the pianist.

The Erard piano was famous during the Chopin era. Unhappily, the doors of Erard are now closed, the French being more inclined to support the visual arts rather than the musical ones. The contribution of the Erard family to the art of piano building is unsurpassed, as shown by references on the history of the piano.

The instrument used in this recording, Serial no. 22,657, was built in 1851 in Paris, 2 years after Chopin's death. It is approximately the size of a Steinway model B, but weighs only 450 lbs. about half the weight of the Steinway. The pitch stability of the instrument is poor - changing with the weather or vigorous playing. The fast decay, however, makes small tuning errors tolerable. The dynamical scale of the instrument is smaller than the modern grand. The greatest volume is less than half that of the model B. while the model B can be played considerably softer with reliability. For delicacy and clarity the Erard has the upper hand. The comparison is like that of a sports car to the touring sedan.

The piano was owned by Glenn D. White of Seattle. It was restored to playing condition by him with the assistance of Allen Goldstein. Minimal changes were made in the restoration so that the piano is in no sense modernized. The hammers and action are the original ones.

Chopin

Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin passed his final examinations at the Warsaw Conservatory in July 1829. On Oct. 20 of the same year the nineteen Year old composer in Warsaw wrote to his dear friend Titus Woyciechowski - I have composed a study, in my own manner; and Nov. 14: I have written some studies; in your presence I would play them well. These confidential statements developed into a shot heard around the musical world, of supreme importance to pianists. Nor has the interest in them abated as the years have passed.

The Etudes have been called the Magna Carta of romantic piano technique, the Titanic Experiments, Poems lit for Parnassus. They do indeed include some of the most beautiful and most difficult music in the piano literature. The young Chopin dared tonalities and techniques never before attempted to express beauty in a kaleidoscope of moods and pictures, from the exhilarating expenditures of high energy to the introverted murmurings of questions unasked, unsolved, and unsolvable. The Etudes dazzle with bursts of tonal excitement that overwhelm us. There are tender phrases that communicate to the innermost depths of ones being, all the while demanding technical artistry of the highest caliber.

Ihe piano is included in all of Chopin's compositions. Moreover his best works are for piano alone. Above all other composers, Chopin has explored the piano to reveal its possibilities. Anton Rubinstein said: The piano bard, the piano rhapsodis t, the piano mind, the piano soul is Chopin. Tragic, romantic, lyric, heroic, dramat ic, fantastic, soulful, sweet, dreamy, brilliant, grand, simple; all possible expressions are found in his compositions and all are sung by him upon his instrument.

His chromatics, harmonies, and modulations were daring in his day and he was indeed the prophet for Saint-Saens. Scriabine, Debussy, Ravel and Prokofiev.

Somc Quotations

State funds cannot be applied to the support of this class of artists. Official reply of Polish government to Chopin supplication for a travel study fellowship upon his graduation from the Warsaw Conservatory in 1829.

Hats off, gentlemen, a genius! Robert Schumann in a review in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 1831.

There is soul in his melodies, fantasy in his figurations, and originality in everything. Francois-Joseph Fetis. Belgian music historian 1832.

The entire works of Chopin present a motley surface of ranting hyperbole and excruciating cacophony. James William Davison critic of the London Times.

See Chopin, for he is something which you have never seen - and some one you will never forget. Berlioz To Legouve.

Chopin is natures most exquisite sounding board and vibrates to her with intensity, color and vivacity that have no parallel. James Huneker American critic and author.

He made an instrument speak the language of the infinite. George Sand

I love Chopin. I know no pianist, no composer br the piano like him. Meyerbeer to DeLenz.

He produces new effects as Paganini does on the violin, and achieves wonderful passages such as no one could have thought possible earlier. Mendelsosohn of Chopin in a letter to his mother.

And people were justified in being thus eager, attentive, and religiously moved, for he whom they awaited, whom they desired to hear, admire, and applaud, was not only a clever virtuoso, a pianist expert in the art of playing notes, not only an artist of great fame. he was all of this and more than all of this. He was Chopin. Franz Liszt, reviewing Chopins concert. Paris 1841.

Chopin of himself said that he was in this world like the E string of a violin on a contrabass.

Like a magician he appears possessed of the secret to transmute and transfigure , whatever he touches into some weird crystal, confusing in its conformation, transparent in its eccentricity, of which no duplicate is possible, no imitation desirable. Edward Dannreuther - Groves Dictionary.

Those who have distorted fingers may put them right by practicing these studies; but those who have not, should not play them, at least not without having a surgeon at hand. Ludwig Rellstab editor of the journal Iris - 1834