Chopin’s name is forevermore connected with the piano. He was a fabulous
pianist, improviser, and, of course, composer with a very unique,
personal style that is characterized by a sense of rubato, allusions to
Polish folk music, grace and melancholy contrasted by virtuosity, pride
and herioc gestures. No other cycle of works wields such an appeal as
his "Préludes op. 28". He completed them shortly before his 29th
birthday, while spending a winter in Mallorca with George Sand and her
children.
This collection of nine "Préludes" appears as part of a
series of popular works from the Bärenreiter catalogue celebrating the
100th anniversary of the publishing house. The complete Urtext edition
of the "Préludes op. 28", which includes the "Prélude op. 45" (BA09610),
offers Chopin's own fingerings and those of his pupils as well as
supplementary historically-informed fingerings and notes on historical
performance practice, specifically on the use of the pedal,
ornamentation, "finger pedaling”, latent polyphony (cantilena),
dynamics, rubato and tempo.
