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Welcome back everyone. To where is the music podcast? If you are an actual listener of the podcast, you might have noticed that the pace of the episodes have recently slowed down. This was due to some personal changes in my life, but.

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From now onwards, I think the pace should go back as normal, which is roughly 3 four episodes.

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So welcome back today. I thought it would be a good idea to introduce one of Chopin’s I think most significant and unique works. Everything that Chopin has written to be perfectly fair is unique and significant.

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That the Preludes are particularly significant for their role in the history of music as a matter of fact.

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The prelude, which actually coincidentally ties in with recent episode I made on the preludes that Bach composed for the well tempered Clavier, the preludes itself, by the time of Chopin, has the prelude as a form.

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Has become a stand alone form a stand alone.

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Piece which is contradictory. How can something that is aiming at preluding something else larger work can be without without its following form. So the Opus 28.

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Of Frederick Chopin. The preludes is a collection of 24. One would call them musical aphorism they are.

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Very brief. Some are extremely brief, less than a minute. Some are a bit longer. Nevertheless, the musical material is quite.

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Quite constrained, quite small. We can we will probably encounter today a few examples of how the musical material is of how, let's say, rather simple the musical material is, but how rich will turn out to be the.

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Creative output of Chopin, but also a couple of more things we can say about the working itself and probably the perhaps even it's aesthetic purposes as we were saying, the prelude becomes with Chopin.

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Stand alone form so it does not aim at introducing a larger form, a larger piece. As a result this 24 preludes are usually performed and recorded as a unique.

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You know collection is a unique work. The whole thing might last roughly half an hour and it's quite an intense experience for the listener is intense because being each one particularly short, brief and deep, profound, some are extremely.

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Let's say emotional. Others are very let's say, dark and powerful, some even violent, as we shall see later on. So for the listener, the experience of having one after the other can be quite intense and demanding.

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For the performer, not, there is no doubt. This is one of the most demanding.

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Works that Japan has given us.

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Technically speaking, some are on top of Chopin's piano ability, and it is quite difficult to maintain the same level of tension throughout throughout the piece throughout the work because.

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Once again, they are so short one just gets the opportunity to get in the piece and the piece is about to end. So having said that, the general.

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The general aesthetic that we might just point at is something that is peculiar of romanticism. With Romanticism one side, one of the paths that artists, poets and composers take is.

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The short form, the short, short poems, short pieces of music such as this small work of arts in a sense, in the, in music, in the Chopin Preludes, we find the perfect example of.

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Perhaps the perfect definition of the romantic idea of aphorism. In a sense, the.

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The attempt to describe to portray an instant of humanity, of emotion, a state of mind that lasts a very brief amount of time. This is something that becomes for.

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For the romantic artist.

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An important piece of information, important artistic goal in the preludes in themselves, each of each one touches on a state of mind, maybe, perhaps an emotion, perhaps an idea, whatever.

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Whatever you might think of each one is a very short, brief exploration in inside the human heart. Chopin is incredible, incredibly rich, and various in the choice of.

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Textures, choice of melodies as a matter of fact, you can perhaps if you want, if you like, you could attach.

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Connect each single one of the 24 preludes to a different state of mind. This reminds me of a painting by Van Gogh, the sunflowers, and the connection that they draw is due to the fact that some.

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Psychologists. I think they have.

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Somehow connected each of the flowers that Van Gogh painted to a different psychological set of mind, and each one seems to.

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Each flower seemed to be a perfect portrayal of description representation of a human state of mind, and we might see a similar say, work or a similar attempt by the composer here.

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Umm.

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Usually the preludes are performed and recorded as a whole, meaning 24 four is 1 after the other. IW would argue that this is, I would say, more of a traditional way of performing.

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Those, but at the same time, I believe.

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And can take them apart and and perform them, perhaps in various orders or even separated from the composition.

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Even I would say 1 can be a bit creative and use each or use one of these actually to as a prelude to something else. One of the characteristics that is perhaps quite common I would say.

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In most of them is to.

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Be so short and so intense that leaves the each one is able to leave the listener wanting more to see, to wanting to to hear how it develops further. And there's a beautiful balance reached here by the.

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Composer being able to welcome the listener in just enough to make him want more.

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But at the same time, without satisfying right away, the such a desire. So I'm going to touch on a few that are perhaps good examples of the few things that they have.

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Talked about.

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So far, and certainly I'm going to touch on the 1st is an agitator in C major. The reference here is clearly the introductory prelude by Bach.

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From the well tempered Clavier, the famous.

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Chopin here does something like this.

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I played it in a rather slow tempo originally. This sounds way faster and way more intense.

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So the references I was saying is to.

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Pax introductory prelude of the well tempered clavier, and you can see the reference being exploited not just in the key but also in the in the figure is in our page originally box write this.

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It should pairwise this.

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So the repetition of their pages somehow, instead of becoming a quiet opening, a quiet opportunity for contemplation of different colours which we had in back in Chopin, becomes a wave of emotion that.

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Keeps keeps growing and growing and growing. I wanted to play for you the same prelude. The interpretation of Maurizio Pollini.

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Marvellous, right?

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At this moment, I would like before to continue to say that my course on the piano music of Chopin is available on Udemy. This is new first time that I am announcing this.

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If you are passionate about the music of Chopin as myself, you will benefit and of course you will play the piano. I'm sure you can benefit from it. I approach quite a number of.

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Composition for piano and the interesting part is that I discuss variety of these techniques, but I take.

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Pieces that are approachable at the beginner and intermediate level, so do have a look at the link is in the description and for the 1st 30 days there is a 30% discount.

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If you hear this, add and you can insert the coupon.

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E minor prelude, E minor prelude is the name of the coupon, so you will get a 30% discount. This offer is valid only for the 1st 30 days, so roughly until mid of August 2024. The reason why.

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The coupon is E minor. Prelude is because of course the E minor prelude is one of the pieces that I discussed here, and that I also teach in the course the famous E minor.

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We can perhaps continue exactly with this one. So this is number four of the in the collection of preludes by Frederic Chopin, #4 in E minor is one of the most famous pieces and possibly.

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One of the reason is because it's fairly approachable. It's fairly slow. Nevertheless, it's quite.

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It's quite intense and quite deep and profound. Perhaps we can find a word that is not usually attached to it. People talk about nostalgia, sadness.

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And.

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Feeling blue, perhaps talk about sad memories. Whatever. Whatever makes you think, but I suggest another word. I suggest stillness. Stillness is what?

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What comes out to me, of course we perceive stillness only in only against movement. Stillness, therefore, such as this note.

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Feels still because.

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Because there are slight little changes to it.

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And I would also think of stillness, not necessarily as a a sound in space, suspended in space, such as this natural bead, that ship, and right, but also stillness.

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Part of it. Stillness in time. How do we perceive stillness in time? Well, think of this accompaniment.

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You.

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Can sense how the motion forward and the pull back is there are tiny degrees of this variation in time and I have the feeling that to make this prelude effective despite its.

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Let's say approachability is this sensor being suspended almost perfectly still, but introducing a sense of motion forward and backward. So instead of for example performing like this.

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You can hear this is perfectly metronome metric almost perfectly metronome matric. But if we introduce this idea of stillness against movement, then we can possibly can probably.

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Engage better in this wave moving forward and backwards.

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I did want to stop in the middle, but I just couldn't. Let's move on to another one actually. Let's move back to #3. #3 is in G major. Probably the best word to describe it are brightness and.

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And enjoy. Incidentally, the most interesting aspect of it is the accompaniment.

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So this very rich and vibrating left hand, it's quite difficult to make it light and bright as Chopin wants, and it's probably reminds of.

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One of those folkloric instruments from from the east, from Eastern Europe and thinking of thinking of Cymbalom, perhaps if you don't know how that symbol sounds, I found.

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A A piano version of it that comes from a jazz composer, pianist, jazz pianist and composer called Ledzek Mozdzer. This is.

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A Polish one who made a series years ago now a very successful series of interpretation of Chopin in jazz, which are some of it are quite remarkable, quite outstanding in.

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Originality, particularly with this one. You can you will be able to hear the.

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The sound of the piano is not a regular sound. It seems kind of prepared. The effect though is of very interesting, let's say very interesting style and.

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Extravagance here is Ledzek Mozdzer in the preluding G major by Chopin.

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It's quite interesting, don't you think?

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It seems that it seems that the this left an accompaniment had so far been kind of fragmented into little pieces that somehow maintain the brightness and the the joy forward.

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You might have noticed how weird sound. How weird is the piano sound? This is an effect. Probably the strings are slightly dampened, so the effect is this peculiar sound.

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At next, I would like to say a few things about the 10th Prelude, there are a number of very short preludes, really, truly aphoristic that even in.

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Even in the whole performance of it, they kind of get lost in the complexity of the work because they're so sure they're they're so intense. This is in C minor.

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Etc. So one of the things that this one makes me think in its brevity, immediacy is quite, almost almost a short, intense battle of conflict between.

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Order and chaos. So we have the chaotic phrase.

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And the orderly 1.

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Chaos again?

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Order again.

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It's interesting in the orderly phrase that seems to be the beginning of an actual piece of music.

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But.

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There isn't any of that. Is just the the beginning of it and leaving us to wanting the continuation.

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And just like that, the piece is over. How how many of you by just listening to my poor rendition of it, are thinking, well, that cannot be over has to continue. We have to go somewhere. It has to.

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It has to touch more places and develop longer.

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And that, in a sense, is the beauty of aphorisms, isn't it? To just give you the chance to continue in your own imagination. And this is another reason I believe this might be a very personal opinion, that these are literally standalone pieces. One by, I think by playing.

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Then all in a row, all the 24 in a row. One really kind of loses the chance to to let each of these short poem resonating in our own imagination.

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Let's say going into this direction, let's talk about #18, the 18th Prelude in F minor is another one of these quite difficult pieces to.

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Let's say describe or to say to refer to a preexisting form.

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What? What does it mean? Well, if you look at the score, you'll see a an apparently extremely, very chaotic form. There are phrases of, let's say, not metered phrases. So for example, there is a.

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Phase of 22 notes and other phrase of 70.

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There are plenty of irregular figures. The quintuplets, like groups of five nodes, which are overall already quite advanced for advanced time.

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I cannot play this one myself. I've never really dig into it. It's also quite demanding, so I will let Mauricio Polini.

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Play for us, this is.

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Prelude #18 in F minor, opus 28.

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Impressive, isn't it?

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If there is a possible reference, we can make a formal one. Trying to answer the question where does Chopin take this idea from? And by this idea I mean this, this, this style of music. From where does this come from?

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For me, a solid reference could be only the.

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Recitative or recitative, which is if you're not familiar with this term, is this kind of is a style of fundamentally opera singing where the singer somehow tells a story in a singing style. We are not talking about a song or a tune or an area, but we are.

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We're talking about, let's say.

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Moving on with the story, moving on with their thoughts. Whatever happens, whatever whatever is happening in the opera at the time and the orchestra kind of supports catches up, gives us some accent, portrays stops on the important words.

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I mean, this is obviously changed throughout the centre is the style of recitativo, but the main point is that it's.

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Rather different in style and it's very easy to differentiate just by listening between recitative and areas. Areas are just beautiful melodies, self-contained, very expressive, while recitativo is more of a free type of musical speech.

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And in the sense we can now call this a melody.

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It's almost impossible to sync, but nevertheless there is this idea of free flow and then.

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And the arc.

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Then free floor again.

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An orchestra so you can see how the expressive, let's say, switch has happened by the time of Chopin. If there is a singer here singing, it's not really singing words.

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That is singing inner and unspeakable intense emotions, and this is due to.

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I make this connection because the sound is very fast, intense, very, sometimes even dissonant and irregular. So now these orchestra interjections.

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Or this one.

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Or they they kind of interjects, interacts with a a more stream of consciousness, type of type of speech.

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And perhaps finally, on the same trajectory towards and towards emotions and the idea that are very difficult to express very, let's say new, I've chose the number 22.

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The number 22 is in G minor is molto agitato. I find it so.

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Unique even in the output of Chopin, this piece is very short. It's extremely you say brutal. I would say violent. There is. There is such a force to it. It's difficult to describe.

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One can even I mean, if one didn't know this was written by Chopin, perhaps you would. One would tie to.

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Some more modern composers, some more Avangard composers. As a matter of fact, it's very hard to pinpoint at the melody. It seems to be just brutal force at its full display. You perhaps have noticed that.

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The choice of preludes in today's episodes does not really.

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Let's say satisfy the expectations of what generally schopen is attached to, so the the melodic 1, the nostalgic, or the sad ones. I stayed away of those cuz they are. They are the most common commonly associated with.

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Style, but I chose Preludes that are rather different and they tend to be overlooked if one considers sharpens complete work or sharpens style.

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I'm going to play with regard to this 22nd prelude in G minor. I'm going to play just the the only thing that we can call Melody. It's the left hand and you will notice already how.

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Non regular non traditional disease.

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Who would think that the composer that the composer of this has also written?

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Right, there seem to be two completely different persons so.

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We are going to listen to it now in the interpretation of Martha Argerich and yes, I play this. I already played this left hand to give you a sense of what might be the the melodic thread, perhaps to follow.

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In in truth, that is just a, just a, you know, very partial perspective, very partial point of view. I will encourage you to as you follow it, just be aware it's very fast, it's very short.

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This might give us, I think, give us a sense of the real focus of an artist. Composers deal with notes. They really spend a lot of time crafting their sound, crafting their their chords, their melodies.

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They really choose one by one the correct notes, but then when when an interpreter sits down at the piano and tries to get to the core to the deep point that an artist is trying to make the effect.

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Really sounds like has nothing to do with actual notes. This is what I think when I hear mapped Argerich playing this prelude. The fact is brutal, violent force coming from a deep, rather dark place. I invite you to.

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Be open and forget the Chopin we are used to the melodic, lovely, sensitive and the emotional. Let's see. Let's see what kind of shaping we we encounter now.

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Right.

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Chaos, inner turmoil, brutal force. These are these are the words that I have annotated. Earlier when I was preparing for for the podcast.

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This left hand that you heard it doesn't sound anymore like a melody or a melodic line. It's feels after this interpretation.

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Like a thread of, you know, terror, chaos, fear. It's incredible.

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It seems to me that if there is a side of romanticism that deals with the powerful forces from from unknown and dark places within the human heart, this is exactly about it. That's that's exactly this music that is.

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We are describing it.

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So this is the end of our journey. Introductory journey into the Chopin prelude. I have touched on maybe five of them. It would be nice, perhaps in a different episode to go through some more because there is plenty to plenty more to discover.

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So I hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know in the comments on your whichever platform you're listening this from.

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Whether you would like to hear more about this or that prelude or even other works by our beloved composer Chopin. So I should remind you that there is in the podcast is free if you like what?

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What I do feel free to support me through Patreon or consider becoming a student of mine if you play the piano. I have already took courses on you. The me that are ready and available one as previously mentioned on Chopin the other.

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On the fundamental of counter points, and with that said, I look forward to our next episode. You will be well and bye bye.