A true salon piece, this prelude has no hint of
artificiality. It is a precise antithesis to the mood of the
previous one. Graceful and gay, the G major prelude is a fair
reflex of Chopin's sensitive and naturally buoyant nature. It
requires a light hand and nimble fingers. The melodic idea
requires no special comment. Kullak phrases it differently from
Riemann and Klindworth. The latter is the preferable. Klindworth
gives 72 to the half note as his metronomic marking, Riemann only
60--which is too slow--while Klindworth contents himself by
marking a simple Vivace. Regarding the fingering one may say that
all tastes are pleased in these three editions. Klindworth's is
the easiest. Riemann breaks up the phrase in the bass figure, but
I cannot see the gain on the musical side.
Niecks truthfully calls the fourth prelude in E minor "a little
poem, the exquisitely sweet, languid pensiveness of which defies
description. The composer seems to be absorbed in the narrow
sphere of his ego, from which the wide, noisy world is for the
time shut out.
Pages:
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238