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Hello everybody,

This is my first post. I'm hoping this is the right forum to post.

I was practicing the other day on Chopins Op 25 no 11 ("winter wind") and I'm wondering about the 8th bar from the end. In my edition (Henle Urtext) the left hands 16th fig is a A minor chord repeated with accents on every quarter note (i.e a,a,a,a). This is (to me) the "main theme". Wouldn't it make more sense if the figure (on the beat) should be : a,a,a,b, followed by next bar: a,e,a? That would make more sense to me anyway - the main theme more accurate at this ending climax.
(I think I've heard some pianists play like this also, but I have always trusted the Henle Edition so I'm a little bit confused..)

Is there anybody who has another edition/or experience with some other notes in this left hand fig.?

I'm sorry for my bad english.

Best regards
Anders

Anders :

Your instinct is a good one.

I also have the Henle edition of the Chopin Etudes, but it is an older edition bought in 1970, edited by Ewald Zimmermann. I don't know whether newer Henle's have more recent source-editings than this one.

In the Novello edition, however, (edited by Frank Merrick), the four low A's (measure 89) are printed as in Henle, but there is a note to the fourth A, indicating : "Variant:- B instead of A." There are no notes in this edition giving the sources, so I can't say where the variant comes from.

Nevertheless, I don't think you could be criticized for playing B on the fourth beat instead of A, and you have at least one edition/editor to support you.

There is no need to apologize for your English; it is more than acceptable.

Regards,

Hi Anders, and welcome. You're in the right place, and your English is just fine.

Here's what the Commentary in the back of my Paderewski edition says about bar 89:
MS = manuscript
GE = original German edition (Breitkopf & Härtel)
FE = original French edition (Lemoine)

BTW, the first editions can be viewed at Chopin\'s First Editions Online ; there's even a utility for displaying three versions at a time and navigating through them (and among them) for purposes of comparison.

Steven

Anders :

I momentarily forgot that I also have the Cortot Edition. He says : "The French edition is also the only one to have the bass B. We recommend the version in small notes [1] which conforms better to the orchestral meaning of the coda.

[1] Here Cortot notates underneath the LH broken chord figure (all notes in parentheses) :
beat 1 : quarter note on A
beat 2 : dotted eighth note plus sixteenth-note on A
beat 3 : quarter note on A
beat 4 : quarter note on A - with footnote which I quoted above refering to the B.

Regards,

Thank you Bruce and Steven for your comments, and thank you Steven for that link you provided, very interesting. I think I'll go for the "b" to keep the motive intact.
I'm very grateful for your (fast) responses, and I'm sure I will enjoy this forum very much.

All the best
Anders

I should perhaps warn you that this Forum can become very addictive. I've been here since before 2001; with almost 9000 posts, you might think I have nothing better to do!

Welcome!

Regards,

I have Paderewski Edition, which uses a B.
Paderewski is the Polish edition.
Also, it would not make sense if the motif was not repeated at the end, as the motif's rhythm is preserved, as well as the AGA at the end.
I think we can be very sure that it is indeed a B.

We can be very sure that it is indeed a B in the original French edition, which the Paderewski edition follows for the reason explained in the Commentary that I quoted above.

Steven