Chopin Op 28 — 24 Preludes

The world, in under an hour.

My piano crush Víkingur Ólafsson recorded this on his 2011 album "Chopin / Bach" and it's good. I've worked on nos. 4, 7, and 20 myself, 20 is 13 bars of pure pedal-driven drama that opens fortissimo.

I didn't know you played piano, silby! you can play some of these?? that's astounding to me. i have been teaching myself over the last few weeks and have struggling to get through the first gymnopedie by satie. i can't imagine coming anywhere close to chopin for several more years.

km you could probably give no. 2 a shot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMNkniC-9hs

No. 4 sort of encapsulates one of my favorite things about piano solo in the last couple hundred years, the creation of something from almost nothing

Karl I'm working on 1er Gymnopedie right now too, you can do it! Write in the chord names for the left hand, I found that a big reading help for this.

Op 28 ranges from "things I can play right now" to "things I can't imagine playing for 10 years".

I think 11 is my favorite, feels like it travels the entire world in 30 seconds. never successfully learned it though, I can only play 4 and 15 out of this batch.

oh I know 20 too I forgot that was a prelude

1 (kinda, but it's awkward you need to keep in practice and i really haven't)
2
3 (used to be superquick at this but again very out of practice)
4
6
7 (second i ever played)
11 (tho i never really mastered it)
14 (ditto, a bit too repetitive for me to be bothered spending the time needed, tho i'd love to be able to do it well)
15 (which i've probably worked hardest at over the years and can actually play as it shd sound maybe kinda)
18 (very out of practice, tho despite being fast it kinda falls under yr fingers once you work at it)
20 (first i ever played)
22 (makes the piano totter if it's an upright )

15 and 22 i played in concert at school, reasonably competently: my then-piano teacher introduced me to chopin (the preludes) bcz he worked out it suited what i was good at viz tons of gloopy rubato at the difficult bits :D

i'd love to be better at 12 but i think i will never practice enough to get my fingers strong enough

found my old book of these and listening along to the recordings, so far am feeling 6 and 13 a lot more than I used to

last section of 17 should have been its own thing, don't like the earlier parts so much

first and last section I mean

really feeling 13 and 17 today, apologies for complaining about the latter

Number 14!!! What!

Have been working on no 4 in E minor and I’m playing it at tempo? And expressively? I might kind of sort of know how to play the piano? Maybe in another decade I’ll take a look at one of the fast ones.

No. 1 is still my favorite, so much that I keep six different versions on my phone — ranging from Martha Argerich's speedy 32-second take to Rubinstein's more stately interpretation (46 seconds).
Maurizio Pollini's is my favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsuNgi_roSs

My heart

Pollini's take is all-time – probably my favourite, when push comes to shove.

Behzod Abduraimov's, which came out earlier this year, is also very much worth hearing.