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Huneker, James, 1860-1921

"Chopin : the Man and His Music"

He
also fingers what Von Bulow calls the "chromatic meanderings," in
an unusual manner, both on the first page and the last. His idea
of the enunciation of the first theme is peculiar:
[Musical score excerpt]
Mikuli places a legato bow over the first three octaves--so does
Kullak--Von Bulow only over the last two, which gives a slightly
different effect, while Klindworth does the same as Kullak. The
heavy dynamic accents employed by Riemann are unmistakable. They
signify the vital importance of the phrase at its initial
entrance. He does not use it at the repetition, but throughout
both dynamic and agogic accents are unsparingly used, and the
study seems to resound with the sullen booming of a park of
artillery. The working-out section, with its anticipations of
"Tristan and Isolde," is phrased by all the editors as it is
never played. Here the technical figure takes precedence over the
law of the phrase, and so most virtuosi place the accent on the
fifth finger, regardless of the pattern. This is as it should be.
In Klindworth there is a misprint at the beginning of the
fifteenth bar from the end in the bass.


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