The nub of modern piano music is in the study, the
most formally reckless Chopin ever penned. Kullak gives Chopin's
favorite metronome sign, 176 to the quarter, but this editor
rightly believes that "the majestic grandeur is impaired," and
suggests 152 instead. The gain is at once apparent. Indeed
Kullak, a man of moderate pulse, is quite right in his strictures
on the Chopin tempi, tempi that sprang from the expressively
light mechanism of the prevailing pianos of Chopin's day. Von
Bulow declares that "the requisite suppleness of the hand in
gradual extension and rapid contraction will be most quickly
attained if the player does not disdain first of all to impress
on the individual fingers the chord which is the foundation of
each arpeggio;" a sound pedagogic point. He also inveighs against
the disposition to play the octave basses arpeggio. In fact,
those basses are the argument of the play; they must be granitic,
ponderable and powerful. The same authority calls attention to a
misprint C, which he makes B flat, the last note treble in the
twenty-ninth bar.
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