This series of lectures is monumental. It's like a textbook in video. Except this is better than any textbook. There is enough information for 20 volumes of text, but far more accessible and enlightening. I'm sure these videos will become a definitive 'text' on Chopin for years to come. I would certainly recommend this for anyone studying music. Very useful for composers too. You really get into the mind of the composer, Greg.
What a dramatic and great piece. I feel it in my whole body when listening. This is the next piece for me to play and I am so grateful to find your interpretation and thoughts about it. When I listen to different pieces of Chopins music I wonder so much about his life. All those playfull and happy mazurkas, but pieces like this make me belive this come from his soul . Thank you for putting this out. I started to play piano again because I wished to discover more beautiful music. Wasnt really prepared for how deeply some pieces would affect me.
Admirable indeed. You are very talented in your approach, and it is extremely rewarding to watch your analysis and performance. Greetings from Brazil, South America
Oí Carlos! Td bem? So good to read your comment! I'm happy you think so. I made such videos about all Chopin's music for piano solo, so I invite you to watch all of them !!! Muito obrigado! I played in Brazil many times in the past
SO WONDERFUL AS ALWAYS!!!!! Thank you for this Prelude sometimes called "Marsz żałobny" in an excellent rendition and for your analysis/tutorial, as every day my best regards, have a nice evening. Joanna
Thanks so much for your beautiful performance and analysis, Greg. I'm currently finishing learning this piece, and this was most helpful. Subscribed. Greetings from Amsterdam!
A heartfelt performance, interpretation and analysis. To me, this piece is a tribal tribute to suffering and loss and I share your sense of devastation hearing it... but "that's Chopin" and I love his music because of it. I am hoping to learn this piece over time and will carry your thoughts with me in the process. Thank you once again.
Intense sound, intense feelings! Pianissimi and Fortissimi touches through brave and valiant chords and harmonies leading to the quintessence of an ideal polish nationalism in the middle of xix century. Thank you so much, Mo Niemczuk, for this explicit and sensational introduction !!!
I've gotta say, of all the videos I've seen of people performing this piece (which has long been my favourite by Chopin), this is probably the most well-played that I've come across. The thing about Prelude Op. 28, No. 20, is that it is (of course) quite a simple piece on paper. But the thing I've noticed too many pianists miss about this one, is that to play the song well, it's really all about how the notes are tempered. You navigated the tone and dynamics of this piece perfectly. One of my great frustrations with many performances of this opus is that whilst the performer's technical skill is often perfect, their performances frequently omit the tonality that makes this song what it is. Anyone can play what's written on the page for this one, but it takes a well-trained ear and a proper understanding of tone to draw out the finery rhat elevates this piece from a simple collection of sombre chords to the melancholy, eerie, heartbroken, and powerful piece that (in the right hands) it truly is. Anyway, long story short; as a lifelong super-fan of Prelude in C Minor, this is hands down the best rendition I've heard on RUclips. So thank you for getting it right, and thank you for sharing.
Thank you for your fantastic analysis! The harmony of the chords in this prelude is mindblowing. Now I realize that the composition of Nocturne Op.48 No.1 shouldn't have been any surprise :) And I find both pieces wielding magnificently the emotional power of the connections to A flat and f.
There has been some uncertainty regarding the last chord of bar 3. Some editions like the one you use (Ekier) show a c-minor chord (with an e-flat in soprano) there, but others show a C major chord (with e-natural in soprano) there. I much prefer the c-minor chord, and I am glad that you chose an edition that agrees with my preference! Did Ekier find evidence showing that this chord was the correct one? Maybe there is a mention in his notes? I apologize in advance for asking such questions; maybe I should just buy the Ekier edition!
Yes he does! He writes in the commentary there before the last note in the third bar there is no flat before the note E in the autograph from Mallorca, but there are other autographs, for example album of Anna Cheremeteff, dated Paris, May 1845, now you can see it in Lenin Library in Moscow, when Chopin wrote himself E flat. And also in another teaching copy of this Prelude of one of his student. Ekier thinks that E natural in the autograph is a typical error of Chopin who forgot to write accidental before E. He did it often!
@@gregniemczuk Thank you for the precision! I like the c-minor chord there because it brings the piece right back to its main dark key, right after the brief excursion to A-flat (in bar 2). This gives more significance to that A-flat modulation which then stands out as the only moment in the first four bars where the progression shows any hope of getting away from the oppressive c-minor tonal center. I am glad to learn that this is truly the version Chopin had in mind!
I love the contrast in volume and the capturing of the mood, Greg.. incidentally Barry Manilow did a pop cover of this prelude ...in 1975 and renamed it " Could This Be Magic" appeared on The Midnight Special In 1975 id be real curious what you thought about his version...lol thanks again Greg!😂..George Sands anecdote was a great tribute to this Prelude!
Thank you very much for your analysis of this tragic prelude. Playing it now it breaks my heart even more thinking about the 🇺🇦Ukrainian people in this war and all the people suffering. 💔 My very best wishes to you.
The chord association is something I don't understand from music theory. The prelude is supposed to be in Cminor, so it basically starts with it to let us know. Then isn't it a bit unclear if one can identify the next one is just Aflat major played with a F in the left hand, or if it is just a 7th Fminor where the base is played by the left hand and removed from the right? Maybe it's both and it's a different way of seeing the same thing, the mixture of the two feelings (from major and minor) is what makes 7th chords more neutral. But the piece is amazing and has inspired me a lot. It was the 2nd Chopin's work I learned to play (after the Eminor). Although i learned to play it at a friends' meeting before Christmas and they were like "don't you know anything more fun to play?" XD .
Greg, great content as always, thank you! Do you have any comments on the "original" AB form vs. the published ABB form? It was suspected that Pleyel (the dedicatee of this piece) suggested the addition of the repeated B part in pp -- but so far I have found not much literature on it. Most importantly, what do YOU think that the AB and ABB feel differently? Relation to how much space you give between No. 19 and this (G chord is common)? Much appreciated.
interesting though the tonalities caracter is really relative and more complex so it's a short cut to say that we finish in c minor therfore it's not optimistic... a bit short somehow; but thank you so much for the effort and engagement; go on; a bit of efition in film would be good too
Hi Tallys. Thank you for your words. Of course! One is in English or French or other languages for sure: Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger - Chopin: Pianist and Teacher as seen by his pupils. The other is probably not translated: Ferdynand Hoesick: Chopin. But this book was also used a lot by James Huneker in his book about Chopin. All the best!
In the Wilhelm Hansen edition there is no sustain pedal in this prelude at all, until the very last bar. Can you provide some insight on this, was it originally composed with or without pedal?
Oh, as far as I remember without the pedal but most likely because it was obvious for Chopin to use it. I have to check in my edition but now I'm on the concert tour in Norway and I will be back at the end of November, than I can check. Pedal makes the piano sound better.
@@gregniemczuk yes it does, however my teacher had a very nasty look on her face when i hardly hit the pedal in only a few bars for a split second just to try to make it "linked" instead of "cut" when playing the next bar... and strongly insisted i play the piece completely non-legato and with absolutely no pedal
No acorde correspondente ao minuto 0:32, os pianistas tradicionais (Rubinstein, Brailoswky, Nélson Freire, tocam Mi natural e não Mi bemol). Por que ? A partitura teria sido revisada ? Obrigado. Luís Eugênio (BRASIL).
Yes, that's a mystery. In one of the editions it's a difference. We will never know which is exactly 100% correct.... But I'm using the most trustworthy edition.
@@gregniemczuk I accept both forms, but I will record following the old pianists because I have an affective connection with Rubinstein, Brailowsky, Pollini and Nélson Freire. I got to know Chopin through them. But it is true that nowadays everyone follows his score. Thank you for listening.
Każda wersja angielska ma również polską. Wiem, że to nie takie proste znaleźć, ale już wklejam linka. Dziękuję za komentarz. Zapraszam do oglądania wszystkich filmów o wszystkich utworach Chopina. Na moim kanale na RUclips są playlisty że wszystkimi odcinkami w wersji polskiej. Pozdrawiam serdecznie: ruclips.net/video/WukbwU9bMa8/видео.html
Have you been investigating the last chord of the 3rd bar? Because in some editions it appear as a C major. Even Rubinstein and other important pianists play it that way. Argerich plays C minor. For me, it only has sense with C minor, but it seems that nobody knows what did Chopin really write.
What a dramatic and great piece. I feel it in my whole body when listening. This is the next piece for me to play and I am so grateful to find your interpretation and thoughts about it. When I listen to different pieces of Chopins music I wonder so much about his life. All those playfull and happy mazurkas, but pieces like this make me belive this come from his soul . Thank you for putting this out. I started to play piano again because I wished to discover more beautiful music. Wasnt really prepared for how deeply some pieces would affect me.
This series of lectures is monumental. It's like a textbook in video. Except this is better than any textbook. There is enough information for 20 volumes of text, but far more accessible and enlightening. I'm sure these videos will become a definitive 'text' on Chopin for years to come. I would certainly recommend this for anyone studying music. Very useful for composers too. You really get into the mind of the composer, Greg.
Thank you so much!
I'm doing my best!
I like listening to this piece before Chopin’s Nocturne op 48 in C minor. They fit together so well.
Yes!
What a dramatic and great piece. I feel it in my whole body when listening. This is the next piece for me to play and I am so grateful to find your interpretation and thoughts about it. When I listen to different pieces of Chopins music I wonder so much about his life. All those playfull and happy mazurkas, but pieces like this make me belive this come from his soul . Thank you for putting this out. I started to play piano again because I wished to discover more beautiful music. Wasnt really prepared for how deeply some pieces would affect me.
My go-to channel for Chopin homework. You are brilliant. Thank you. ❤
Admirable indeed. You are very talented in your approach, and it is extremely rewarding to watch your analysis and performance. Greetings from Brazil, South America
Oí Carlos! Td bem? So good to read your comment! I'm happy you think so. I made such videos about all Chopin's music for piano solo, so I invite you to watch all of them !!! Muito obrigado! I played in Brazil many times in the past
SO WONDERFUL AS ALWAYS!!!!! Thank you for this Prelude sometimes called "Marsz żałobny" in an excellent rendition and for your analysis/tutorial, as every day my best regards, have a nice evening. Joanna
Great video as always, I can’t wait to hear your analysis of the D minor prelude (my personal favorite)
I am just learning this prelude. I love your interpretation. This inspires me to play it much more dramatically.
This is incredible. Thank you again!
You are fantastic at explaining and giving a full background into the music. It is so important to any musician! Fantastic
Thank you so much dear Victoria! I'm happy you've came across my channel
Bravissimo and full of passion!
Thanks from Italy
Thanks so much for your beautiful performance and analysis, Greg. I'm currently finishing learning this piece, and this was most helpful. Subscribed. Greetings from Amsterdam!
A heartfelt performance, interpretation and analysis. To me, this piece is a tribal tribute to suffering and loss and I share your sense of devastation hearing it... but "that's Chopin" and I love his music because of it.
I am hoping to learn this piece over time and will carry your thoughts with me in the process. Thank you once again.
Intense sound, intense feelings! Pianissimi and Fortissimi touches through brave and valiant chords and harmonies leading to the quintessence of an ideal polish nationalism in the middle of xix century. Thank you so much, Mo Niemczuk, for this explicit and sensational introduction !!!
You're amazing with you feelings and knowledge. Thank you very much!
Thank you for this. A wonderful video.
Thank you. Wonderful.
Merci pour votre interprétation qui « boulverse ». Vous faites vivre ces 13 mesures. Votre analyse me parle 😊
Ran into one of these tutorials a couple days ago and I’ve watched a few now and am very grateful that I found your channel👍
Hi Caden. Lovely to hear that!! Yeah, there are more than hundred videos like this made by me ... Enjoy!!
I've gotta say, of all the videos I've seen of people performing this piece (which has long been my favourite by Chopin), this is probably the most well-played that I've come across. The thing about Prelude Op. 28, No. 20, is that it is (of course) quite a simple piece on paper. But the thing I've noticed too many pianists miss about this one, is that to play the song well, it's really all about how the notes are tempered.
You navigated the tone and dynamics of this piece perfectly. One of my great frustrations with many performances of this opus is that whilst the performer's technical skill is often perfect, their performances frequently omit the tonality that makes this song what it is.
Anyone can play what's written on the page for this one, but it takes a well-trained ear and a proper understanding of tone to draw out the finery rhat elevates this piece from a simple collection of sombre chords to the melancholy, eerie, heartbroken, and powerful piece that (in the right hands) it truly is.
Anyway, long story short; as a lifelong super-fan of Prelude in C Minor, this is hands down the best rendition I've heard on RUclips. So thank you for getting it right, and thank you for sharing.
Oh My God.... I appreciate it so much! You've just made my day!
Wonderful performance and analysis. Thank you
My pleasure!
Oh thank you for this incredible good lecture! It helps me a lot. I just started to practice this piece.
Wonderful to hear. Good luck! Thank you!
Thank you for your fantastic analysis! The harmony of the chords in this prelude is mindblowing. Now I realize that the composition of Nocturne Op.48 No.1 shouldn't have been any surprise :)
And I find both pieces wielding magnificently the emotional power of the connections to A flat and f.
Yes! It's unbelievably genius 🙂
Wonderful to listen to this expressive, whole-body performance today!
Ah, 'the suffering of the whole nation' - so heavy.
Hahahahahahha
Thanks!
There has been some uncertainty regarding the last chord of bar 3. Some editions like the one you use (Ekier) show a c-minor chord (with an e-flat in soprano) there, but others show a C major chord (with e-natural in soprano) there. I much prefer the c-minor chord, and I am glad that you chose an edition that agrees with my preference! Did Ekier find evidence showing that this chord was the correct one? Maybe there is a mention in his notes? I apologize in advance for asking such questions; maybe I should just buy the Ekier edition!
Yes he does! He writes in the commentary there before the last note in the third bar there is no flat before the note E in the autograph from Mallorca, but there are other autographs, for example album of Anna Cheremeteff, dated Paris, May 1845, now you can see it in Lenin Library in Moscow, when Chopin wrote himself E flat. And also in another teaching copy of this Prelude of one of his student. Ekier thinks that E natural in the autograph is a typical error of Chopin who forgot to write accidental before E. He did it often!
@@gregniemczuk Thank you for the precision! I like the c-minor chord there because it brings the piece right back to its main dark key, right after the brief excursion to A-flat (in bar 2). This gives more significance to that A-flat modulation which then stands out as the only moment in the first four bars where the progression shows any hope of getting away from the oppressive c-minor tonal center. I am glad to learn that this is truly the version Chopin had in mind!
I personally prefer the e natural but I love the fact that it opens the piece up to so much discussion and interpretation!
I love the contrast in volume and the capturing of the mood, Greg.. incidentally Barry Manilow did a pop cover of this prelude ...in 1975 and renamed it " Could This Be Magic" appeared on The Midnight Special In 1975 id be real curious what you thought about his version...lol thanks again Greg!😂..George Sands anecdote was a great tribute to this Prelude!
Thank you very much for your analysis of this tragic prelude. Playing it now it breaks my heart even more thinking about the 🇺🇦Ukrainian people in this war and all the people suffering. 💔
My very best wishes to you.
The chord association is something I don't understand from music theory. The prelude is supposed to be in Cminor, so it basically starts with it to let us know. Then isn't it a bit unclear if one can identify the next one is just Aflat major played with a F in the left hand, or if it is just a 7th Fminor where the base is played by the left hand and removed from the right? Maybe it's both and it's a different way of seeing the same thing, the mixture of the two feelings (from major and minor) is what makes 7th chords more neutral.
But the piece is amazing and has inspired me a lot. It was the 2nd Chopin's work I learned to play (after the Eminor). Although i learned to play it at a friends' meeting before Christmas and they were like "don't you know anything more fun to play?" XD .
Greg, great content as always, thank you! Do you have any comments on the "original" AB form vs. the published ABB form? It was suspected that Pleyel (the dedicatee of this piece) suggested the addition of the repeated B part in pp -- but so far I have found not much literature on it. Most importantly, what do YOU think that the AB and ABB feel differently? Relation to how much space you give between No. 19 and this (G chord is common)? Much appreciated.
I didn't know that!
interesting though the tonalities caracter is really relative and more complex so it's a short cut to say that we finish in c minor therfore it's not optimistic... a bit short somehow; but thank you so much for the effort and engagement; go on; a bit of efition in film would be good too
Loved your playing and analysis. Could you please share the names of the two books you read the quotes from?
Hi Tallys. Thank you for your words. Of course! One is in English or French or other languages for sure: Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger - Chopin: Pianist and Teacher as seen by his pupils.
The other is probably not translated: Ferdynand Hoesick: Chopin. But this book was also used a lot by James Huneker in his book about Chopin.
All the best!
@@gregniemczuk Thank you very much! I'll search for these books.
In the Wilhelm Hansen edition there is no sustain pedal in this prelude at all, until the very last bar.
Can you provide some insight on this, was it originally composed with or without pedal?
Oh, as far as I remember without the pedal but most likely because it was obvious for Chopin to use it. I have to check in my edition but now I'm on the concert tour in Norway and I will be back at the end of November, than I can check.
Pedal makes the piano sound better.
@@gregniemczuk yes it does, however my teacher had a very nasty look on her face when i hardly hit the pedal in only a few bars for a split second just to try to make it "linked" instead of "cut" when playing the next bar... and strongly insisted i play the piece completely non-legato and with absolutely no pedal
No acorde correspondente ao minuto 0:32, os pianistas tradicionais (Rubinstein, Brailoswky, Nélson Freire, tocam Mi natural e não Mi bemol). Por que ? A partitura teria sido revisada ? Obrigado. Luís Eugênio (BRASIL).
Yes, that's a mystery. In one of the editions it's a difference. We will never know which is exactly 100% correct.... But I'm using the most trustworthy edition.
@@gregniemczuk I accept both forms, but I will record following the old pianists because I have an affective connection with Rubinstein, Brailowsky, Pollini and Nélson Freire. I got to know Chopin through them. But it is true that nowadays everyone follows his score. Thank you for listening.
@@luissanabio wonderful!
passacaglia c moll Bach - solennel caracter it's a Tirnity symbol with 3 bemols Bis eis a-is
the bass could be referring ot the church organ yes somehow but why not to bells, tragically ringing (church/cathedral bells)
Yes!
Piękne wykonanie.Być może tylko w salce za dużo pogłosu..ale to nie sala koncertowa.
13:50 that's a very odd way of analyzing harmony. I'd just say it's i-iv-V
Hi Jonathan! Of course you're right! But I made those videos especially for not musicians, people who have no idea what is I - IV - V
Barry manilow used this piece for his ‘could it be magic’ popular song….! Who’d a thought.
Do you think Chopin knew that he was dying already as he composed that piece?
He could have this feeling and he was frightened....
Dlaczego nie po polsku.
Każda wersja angielska ma również polską. Wiem, że to nie takie proste znaleźć, ale już wklejam linka. Dziękuję za komentarz. Zapraszam do oglądania wszystkich filmów o wszystkich utworach Chopina. Na moim kanale na RUclips są playlisty że wszystkimi odcinkami w wersji polskiej. Pozdrawiam serdecznie:
ruclips.net/video/WukbwU9bMa8/видео.html
Don't move so much... It's absolutely not necessary...except for a funny Bad movie...😅..well done for the music
I'll try. But sometimes it's hard to control
operas or nicer opere ;)
He can't hold the tempo.
Ups, sorry ....
Have you been investigating the last chord of the 3rd bar? Because in some editions it appear as a C major. Even Rubinstein and other important pianists play it that way. Argerich plays C minor. For me, it only has sense with C minor, but it seems that nobody knows what did Chopin really write.
Yes, I did! But I didn't find any sources! In Rachmaninoff Variations there is also C major. I don't really know where it came from.....
c major makes sense to me!
What a dramatic and great piece. I feel it in my whole body when listening. This is the next piece for me to play and I am so grateful to find your interpretation and thoughts about it. When I listen to different pieces of Chopins music I wonder so much about his life. All those playfull and happy mazurkas, but pieces like this make me belive this come from his soul . Thank you for putting this out. I started to play piano again because I wished to discover more beautiful music. Wasnt really prepared for how deeply some pieces would affect me.
Thank you for this fantastic comment!