Chopin's music
needs a rhythmic sense that to us, fed upon the few simple forms
of the West, seems almost abnormal. The Chopin rubato is rhythm
liberated from its scholastic bonds, but it does not mean
anarchy, disorder. What makes this popular misconception all the
more singular is the freedom with which the classics are now
being interpreted. A Beethoven, and even a Mozart symphony, no
longer means a rigorous execution, in which the measure is
ruthlessly hammered out by the conductor, but the melodic and
emotional curve is followed and the tempo fluctuates. Why then is
Chopin singled out as the evil and solitary representative of a
vicious time-beat? Play him as you play Mendelssohn and your
Chopin has evaporated. Again play him lawlessly, with his
accentual life topsy-turvied, and he is no longer Chopin--his
caricature only. Pianists of Slavic descent alone understand the
secret of the tempo rubato.
I have read in a recently started German periodical that to
make the performance of Chopin's works pleasing it is
sufficient to play them with less precision of rhythm than the
music of other composers.
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