This is the first Impromptu of Chopin which I uploaded a pretty messy version of some time ago. Here is a new version which I hope will please your ears better. There are still several slips in it but I hope you enjoy it anyway. I find this litte nice saloon piece really trick to execute properly. The cadenzas of the A-part fits badly to my hands and I have never found a really comfortable way to execute these. Also, I find the B-part suprisingly difficult to interpret. Enough babbeling. Here it is .

Chopin Impromptu no.1 - Op.29

Yes there are still quite some slips but this is a lot more fluent and assured than the last one. Now if you can cut down on the rather aggressive attack (especially in the beginning) and bring in the poetry, this will be fine. There are a some rhythmic inconsistencies in the B section (bars 1 and 3 from the sostenuto), these long crescendo trills are a bit tentative, and the ff bar after that is too rushed (at a climax like this, always take tempo back a bit). There seem to be some reading mistakes in the last page (the two bars on each side of the sotto voce).

It's clear you worked hard on this piece, and done the groundwork so you have a technically solid base. All that needs to be done now is lift the music from the page and make it soar like a butterfly. And be a bit more subtle in the B section (rather heavy steps right now which is probably not how it should be).

Hi Robert,
You're getting there! I think the first two pages were fine. I still like your style regarding the left hand.

Measure 30 - You could hold the hold a bit longer. Same goes for the one 16 measures from end.

Measures 33-34 - Too fast with this run.

Measure 35, 37, and 45 - Coming in too early with left hand. If you count 1-2-3-4, the left hand has to wait until second count.

Last line - Since the rhythm is very straight forward, you have to make sure to count out all the rests. Anyone not looking at the score will not notice if you don't but those who do will.

Did you really mean "saloon" music? or "salon" music. Maybe this is how you say it over there, but here when I think of saloon music, I think of a bunch of cowboys sitting around in a saloon playing poker and drinking whiskey. I didn't know cowboys listened to Chopin music too. I wonder how it sounds on a 'honky-tonk piano.

I agree with the other statements here, you get the hang of this Impromptus. Your staccato like playing in the beginning is your personal style, but really, my headphones almost droped down in the beginning. I expected a soft beginning with 2 phrases like a question what is repeated, followed by a long answer. But I got a fortissimo attack instead. Why not, about interpretation one will not find an end in discussion.

On the both accelerando parts you could check for eveness in the beginning, and I agree that the rests at the end could be done more precise (and if it is only for us fussy listeners who get the habbit to listen with score in the hand - I don't know whether that is a good or bad habbit, because it distracts also from listening).

Keep up the good work!

Hehe! Ah, not really saloon music. Cowboys and Chopin...will, that is an odd match .

Bar 30, it feels not natural for me to hold it down longer. If I do that, I must drop the tempo in the bar before.

Bar 33-34. Yeah well, fits so natural for the hand so I cannot hold it back really. I will try better next time.

35, 37, 45. Just that it feels so slow. Perhaps I chose a too slow tempo for the B-part but I should correct this.

At the end. Well, I do not count and am not sure if it is important either. When one compose an end like that, one must make it fit and I take a very liberal approach when I enter endings like this. Do it entirely on feel.

I take an example here. Listen to Rachmaninov when he plays his op.3 prelude. In the beginning, he does not count and it does not fit the tempo at all. He is not even close as he take twice the tempo when he should (according to the score) rest on the C#. He does the same thing in the end. He had to make it fit into equal lengths of bars. But well, one can probably not compare Rach with Chopin but we also know that Chopin was a very liberal rubato pianist. That is noted many times from his listeners. But there exist many contradictional fact as his pupil reported him to teach that the left hand is the the clock, while right hand plays the rubato. So left hand should be tempo steady while a more liberal approach can be applied to right hand. Not sure how this monologue fits with the end of the impromptu but I have a feeling that he left such an ending very much to the pianist to make his own. And so I do.

Sorry for the chocking start . The accelerando parts are really tricky to me and I don't find a really comfortable fingering. The slips bother me most and I am dealing with it. I hope to be able to produce a better version in s hort time.