Chopin was not known for openly admiring his fellow pianists. But neither did he ever boast about his own work. Thus, in reporting to his friend Fontana on the finale of the Funeral Sonata, in 1839, he pointed out quite simply that in the last movement "the left hand chats with the right hand". Such "chattering" is today regarded as a model of atonality in its embryonic state.
Ten years earlier, he had written to another friend that he would love playing for him some "exercises" he had just composed. They are three pieces that would carry the numbers 1, 2, and 5 in the series of 12 Études Opus 10, published in Paris in 1833 with a dedication "to my friend Franz Liszt".
In 1829, Chopin was 19 years old. He was still in Warsaw, attending his third year of the conservatory. Two years earlier his younger sister Emilia had died, presumably of tuberculosis or something similar. Following this sad event, the family moved house. On the lower floors sleep his two sisters (our author is the second child). Frédérick was assigned the attic. And there he drove his old piano. There he dreams and composes his "exercises".
Etude No 5, opus 10
It is also known as the Etude "of the black keys", composed in G flat major. The demands are high. In addition to the respected and renowned "thumb pass" over the black keys, the performer must achieve a "pearly" performance in speed, with rapid but also light hand movements.
The very short etude lasts less than two minutes.
The video presented here is based on the performances of nine pianists, most of them Russian. There is something for everyone.
The performers are:
00:06 Stanislav Bunin, Russian
01:57 Boris Berezovsky, Russian
03:42 Fujiko Hemming, Swedish
05:27 Lang Lang, Chinese
06:55 Samson François, French (now deceased)
08:41 Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian
10:21 Valentina Lisitsa, Ukraine
12:00 Lukas Geniušas, Russian
13:52 György Cziffra, Hungarian (dead 1994)
