Eighteen-year-old Frederyk François Chopin announced in a letter dated October 29, 1829, "I have composed a Study in my own fashion." The music was the jubilant Etude Opus 10, n° 8. On Nov. 14th, to the same friend, "I have written two Studies; I could play them well for you." The F mnor "Molto Agitato" (N° 9) was meant to contrast in musical content as well as key ; many of the Etudes were written in pairs. Young Chopin was a pianist as well as a composer; his instrument presented as yet unfathomed problems in technique. Keyboardists had learned to master the light touch of the harpsichord and yet the lighter touch of the clavichord, but the piano required greater dynamic gradations through different amounts of finger pressure. To bridge this gap "Etudes, Studies, or Exercises" had been written by Clementi, Cramer, and later, Czerny. Can it be that these musically unrewarding pieces combined with the pianist's genuine need provided inspiration to compose in this idiom ? Von Bülow said of Etude n° 10, "He who can play this study in a really finished manner may congratulate himself on having climbed to the highest point of the pianist's Parnassus." With the elegant "Arpegiatto" Etude in E-Flat we have four gems completed within a two-month period. 1829-30 were wonderfully exciting years for Chopin. He went to Vienna where a large poster proclaimed him "the new star from the north ;" when he returned to Warsaw after many concerts he was established as Poland's most representative musician. Romance was a game, and he experienced his first schoolboy love for the singer Constantia Gladkowska who inspired the slow movement of his F Minor Concerto. In the summer of 1830 another contrasting pair of Etudes, feathery, airy n° 5 and dark velvet n° 6 were written in related keys. A letter dated April 25, 1839, to Jules Fontana refers to n° 5 as "Black Key Study." Chopin's "Farewell" concert in Warsaw took place on October 11th, 1830 ; he played his E Minor Concerto to Wild applause as his audience wished him well on his forthcoming concert tour of all western Europe. No one knew then that he would leave never to return to his native land. Etudes n° 1 and 2 were called "Exercises 1 and 2" ; the second one, which reminds me of dry leaves flying in the wind, is dated Nov. 2nd, 1830, the day Chopin left Poland for the last time. Ossip Gabrilowitsch said of this Etude, "A pianist should work on this music for twenty-five years before playing it in public." Of triumphant n° 1, Chopin told his pupil Mme. Streicher, "This Etude will do you very much good if you study it correctly. It will stretch your hand..."
Ruth Slenczynska (from the original Liner Notes)
Ruth Slenczynska
Plays
Frédéric Chopin
(1810-1849)
Tracks
12 Etudes, Op. 10
1 N° 1 in C major (Allegro) 1:55
2 N° 2 in A minor (Allegro) 1:24
3 N° 3 in E major (Lento ma non troppo) 4:17
4 N° 4 in C-Sharp minor (Presto) 2:07
5 N° 5 in G-Flat major (Vivace) 1:36
6 N° 6 in E-Flat minor (Andante) 3:22
7 N° 7 in C major (Vivace) 1:31
8 N° 8 in F major (Allegro) 2:22
9 N° 9 in F minor (Allegro molto agitato) 2:13
10 N° 10 in A-Flat major (Vivace assai) 2:12
11 N° 11 in E-Flat major (Allegretto) 2:19
12 N° 12 in C minor (Allegro con fuoco) 2:25
Trois Nouvelles Etudes
(Pour la Méthode de Moscheles)
13 N° 1 in F minor 2:09
14 N° 2 in D-Flat major 1:42
15 N° 3 in A-Flat major 1:59
16 Berceuse, Op. 57 4:16
17 Three Ecossaises, Op. 72 2:01
*
Ruth Slenczynska - p
Recorded ca 1957