Chopin Music Forum

[Jeliness2]

My Favorite: Chopin Ballades and Impromptus (Eh, Schirmer though.)
My Most Used: Chopin Ballades and Impromptus and Mozart Piano Sonata no.10 (Henle Verlag!)
My Most Valuble: All my edition peters lol (around $20 ea.)

[Goldberg]

My Favourite: Hmm, I have a few...my "rare" music, which isn't very rare, really: Saint-Saens 3rd concerto, Editions Durand; Totentanz for two pianos, Peters Edition (actually rarer than you might think); Saint-Saens Etude en form de Valse (same as Totentanz); Alkan Trois Morceaux dans les Genre Pathetique, Editions Durand; and perhaps my most favourite is the pair of books of Cziffra's Transcriptions from the Cziffra Fondation.

Most Used: Hilariously, most of the scores I've played in the past actually come from SMA. But, nevertheless I'll make an estimate here: For sight reading and randomly playing stuff, I mostly use my Haydn Sonatas, Schirmer; Chopin's Mazurkas, Alfred; Moszkowski's Etudes, Schirmer; and....oh!! I know what my most used book is, really: Liszt's Etudes, Volume 2, Dover Publications.

Most Valuable: Easily my Cziffra Transcription books, which cost a cool $50 each. One of them comes with a rare-ish CD as well. Other than that, I've shelled out $30-40 for a good Henle Edition on several occassions.

I'm much more skilled as a sheet music collecter than a player of sheet music, clearly.

[Jeliness2]

hah, how are the Moszkowski Etudes(Op.72)? Are they really difficult? How difficult are they compared the Chopin's Etudes?

[Goldberg]

Interesting that you should ask...I've actually just recently--that is to say within the past few days--discovered my edition of them and have been delighted at their musical nature. I just adore Moszkowski's felicific and scinitilating music in general, in such contrast to the typical Romantic tear-jerkers and thundering histrionics. I'll probably end up playing a few of them for a recital coming up.

However, on a technical scale, they're not very difficult (well, not on a musical scale, either). Quite a bit below the Chopin etudes, I'd say; comparable, perhaps, to some of Czerny's, although I don't know for sure because I've never played Czerny's. The Moszkowski etudes generally seem to encourage feather-light touch, speed, and evenness, all at a controlled dynamic level; plus, the left hand is always a "second-thought". For an advanced pianist, they won't do much, unless you're looking for a few charming encores a la Horowitz...but I'm trying to dig my way back to my pianistic roots and extirpate my long-standing bad habits, and figured the simple but fun and effective Moszkowski etudes will help me do the trick...great pieces!

I'd also love to try his piano concerto, on a side note.

[An!ma`]

Moszkowski etudes are a true b*tch to learn and play, they're easier than Chopets, but much harder than Czerny.


I've tried to read through some, and I've played the 2nd one, which I never got to perfect. It wasn't all too fun to play, and it was just difficult to play all the way through without completely messing up at some places.

[Goldberg]

Really? Well, that makes me feel less ashamed about learning them, heh. I KNOW that that blasted chromatic on in F major (the one that Horowitz made famous, I suppose) is damn tricky in places, and even that last one in B major seems extraordinarily difficult, that is, compared to the others.

But I should think that the F major one in particular would be kind of fun to play, as long as you could pull it off accurately and energetically. There are several I'm interested in learning, including the F major one: No. 1, 4, 9, 11 (I THINK this is the one in Db major, marked presto, maybe it's 12), and who knows, maybe another one.

[An!ma`]

No. 13 is probably one of my faves as well, and I love the F major. I think 13 is one of the most difficult... But I'm really not too familiar with these etudes anyway.


Why feel ashamed? They're good etudes, and really not easy to play without making yourself look like a fool.

[Fryderyk]

My favourite must be a quite ordinary Peters Edition Chopin Waltzes from arund 75. My father bought it and played some of them, even though he preferred playing jazz and one day I found the book, started to play some of the waltzes and after that I was hooked

My first Chopin piece was op 69 no2 from that very book, so that´s the reason.

I either borrow music from people I know (and I have quite alot of pianists in my family), buy second hand or borrow from the library. So the most expensive book I have is a Henle V. urtext Chopin etudes for only 8 USD heh.

[nycrichpianist]

Hi! hey goldberg i was wondering if u cud pls send me a coppy of the cziffra transcriptions volume 2 cuz i already have volume one and im really looking for the other one