Preludes, Op. 28, 45 - Piano

Hardly any cycle of piano pieces can match the magnetic attraction of Chopin’s “24 Preludes”, published in 1839. Schumann called them “sketches, beginnings of etudes, [...] ruins, stray eagle's pinions, all disorder and wild confusion”.

Christoph Flamm has critically reevaluated the sources, bringing to light new readings of this well-known musical text. Hardy Rittner, a hammerklavier specialist and two-time winner of the ECHO Classic prize, who has recorded Brahms’ piano music and all of Chopin’s “Etudes” on period pianofortes, has supplemented Chopin’s fingering from a historically informed perspective. He also provides valuable notes on performance practice, especially with regard to pedalling, rubato, latent polyphony, legato and Chopin’s perception of sound.

An aesthetically presented engraving and practical page-turns make this current edition indispensable for today’s scholars and performers.

• Urtext edition with new readings
• Notes on performance practice (Ger/Eng)
• With historically informed fingering and practical page-turns
• Informative Foreword (Ger/Eng) and detailed Critical Commentary (Eng)

With fingering and notes on performance practice by Hardy Rittner