Most of the others use 88 to the quarter,
except Riemann, who espouses the more rapid gait of 96.
Klindworth, with his 88, strikes a fair medium.
The verdict of Von Bulow on the following study in A flat, No.
10, has no uncertainty of tone in its proclamation:
He who can play this study in a really finished manner may
congratulate himself on having climbed to the highest point of
the pianist's Parnassus, as it is perhaps the most difficult
piece of the entire set. The whole repertory of piano music
does not contain a study of perpetuum mobile so full of genius
and fancy as this particular one is universally acknowledged
to be, except perhaps Liszt's Feux Follets. The most important
point would appear to lie not so much in the interchange of
the groups of legato and staccato as in the exercise of
rhythmic contrasts--the alternation of two and three part
metre (that is, of four and six) in the same bar. To overcome
this fundamental difficulty in the art of musical reproduction
is the most important thing here, and with true zeal it may
even be accomplished easily.
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