Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Music - Chopin's Etudes

After reading xx's blog entry, I decided to listen to Chopin today... it's been a while since I have heard someone play his Etudes. I used to like the ones that were being played very fast by the artistes, but today I felt that I like the ones that are played fast, but not so fast that they seem mechanical. I kinda now feel that the tempo should not take away the life of the composition.

That makes the Valentina (Igoshina & Lisitsa) my favorites - she seems to have mastered the fine art of achieving a good tempo that's neither too slow nor too fast. And yes, for the record, Sviatoslav Richter is also one of my favorites, but he's kind of a legend now which means most people like him.

Okay, so I asked google if Chopin has prescribed the tempo for any of his etudes, but it seems he hasn't. BTW, have a look at these 3 videos that came up in the search results and see if you agree with me... kinda amazing...






Bonus:
(Her Boesendorfer seems to be the same model as the one in the Media Lab.)

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