Not considering his two piano concerti, the Etudes are his most impressive compositions in my opinion. Agree? Disagree? Substantiate, please.
And as I requested in the question caption, please don't list more than 3.
And while we're at it, can you think of another Polish or French-Polish(not French alone)composer, that is in anyway comparable to Chopin. I can't.
Pianists: your favorite choices may or maybe not be, those you consider the most difficult to execute.
Any serious or thoughtful comments welcome(not overly long, please).
Thanks,
Wotan The Etudes are definately among his best compositions, better, I would say, than the concertos. Frankly, Chopin wasn't as good in the Orchestral medium as on the keyboard. I can't say that the 茅tudes are collectively the best, but some of them are very notable, as well as some of the preludes and nocturnes.
As to the hardest, I would have to say number 11, opus 25 'Winter Wind', or number 4 opus 10 in C Sharp Minor or number 5 opus 10 'Black Key'. The Winter Wind is probably the hardest, as it requires the same amount of motion as the C sharp minor, but has more complex rhythms and is typically played a bit faster. Also, some passages contain large and disorienting jumps around the keyboard at speeds of more than 12 notes per second.
A common misconception is that number 12 opus 25 'Ocean' is the hardest. It is actually one of the easiest, one you get a grip on jumping octaves and on extended phrasing. The Ocean 茅tude is certainly the best known and best loved of both sets.
My personal favorites are number 9 opus 25 'Butterfly' and number 5 opus 10 'Black Key'. They are both in G Flat.
Incidentally, you might enjoy the arrangements of the 茅tudes by Leopold Godowsky. For some reason, he wanted to make them harder. His set of about 52 arrangements includes several for left hand along, and several that are synthesi of two original 茅tudes. Wonderfully, he put the Butterfly and Black Key 茅tudes together into one piece.
I recomend the recording by Marc-Andr茅 Hamelin, mostly because he's the only distinguished artist who has recorded the set.
Another polish composer you might enjoy is Witold Lutos艂awski (Lutoswafski). He was a great pianist, and composer for the instrument. His pieces are much more deliberately virtuostic, like Liszt, and (being a modern composer) much less tonally centred than Chopin. Check out his Paganini Varriations for two pianos. Though I'm not a pianist, I would say that I agree with your consideration.
The Etudes op 10 are Chopin麓s first complete masterpiece, a revelation of his genius and marked by a quite astonishing power of invention. It is not only their musical quality, but the whole conception of the 茅tude as a genre that make Chopin麓s absolutely different from the studies written during the first decades of the 19th century.
The majority of Chopin麓s 茅tudes are cast in the then generally accepted form: each is concentrated on a simple technical problem and explores a single theme. In fact op.10 may be considered the first complete revelation of Chopin麓s genius simply because it perfectly combines nobility of musical invention and the solution of formal problems with experimentation in the field of technique and keyboard sonority embodied in a revolutionary pianistic style. This revelation was confirmed and extended in op. 25. Taken together the two collections reveal a certain concern with systematic training. A number of technical problems, not treated as such in op. 10, are treated in op. 25. This systematic concern is not carried to its logical conclusion as a number of technical problems are not taken into consideration simply because technical problems were understood by Chopin from the creative point of view, as a stimulus to invention and discovery.
No other Polish composer could be compared to Chopin. I wouldn't consider myself a pianist but my favorite Chopin etudes are the Ocean Waves one, Winter Wind, and etude in C sharp minor. Revolutionary is probably a popular one. It reminds of XFiles for some reason.
I can't really agree that his etudes are his most impressive works. Sure they are amazing but his nocturnes are equally impressive to me at least. In fact I'm still in the midst of discovering Chopin.
Hardest to execute. I'd have to try them all first and tell you personally. |
