Compare
with this etude the introduction to the Capriccio in B minor,
with orchestra, by Felix Mendelssohn, first page. Aside from a
few rallentando places, the etude is to be played strictly in
time.
I prefer the Klindworth editing of this rather sombre, nervous
composition, which may be merely an etude, but it also indicates
a slightly pathologic condition. With its breath-catching
syncopations and narrow emotional range, the A minor study has
nevertheless moments of power and interest. Riemann's phrasing,
while careful, is not more enlightening than Klindworth's. Von
Bulow says: "The bass must be strongly marked throughout--even
when piano--and brought out in imitation of the upper part."
Singularly enough, his is the only edition in which the left hand
arpeggios at the close, though in the final bar "both hands may
do so." This is editorial quibbling. Stephen Heller remarked that
this study reminded him of the first bar of the Kyrie--rather the
Requiem Aeternam of Mozart's Requiem.
It is safe to say that the fifth study in E minor is less often
heard in the concert room than any one of its companions.
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