Chopin's Etudes and Preludes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 769, 15 April 1954, Page 24

Chopin's Etudes and Preludes

JK OA NEES of Dunedin recently recorded in a series of four programmes Chopin’s 24 Preludes and his 24 Etudes; and these will be broadcast in coming weeks from the YC and YZ stations. The recitals start from 1YC at 7.0 p.m. on Wednesday, April 21, and from 4YC at 7.50 pm. on Thursday, April 22. In the first broadcast she will play Preludes Nos. 1 to 12, from Opus 28. Koa Nees has been a regular broadcaster from Dunedin stations for many years. In 1947 she presented a series of programmes from 4YA of Keyboard Music By Bach, and in 1949 she broadcast a programme of Schubert’s piano music. Later in the year she broadcast a programme of Music Through the Centuries, with Phyllis Turner, Dorothy Wallace and Ritchie Hanna. Chopin, like Bach, wrote 24 Preludes, one for each major and minor key of the piano. They are not, however, in the sense that Bach's preludes were, introductions to more lengthy works. They have been described as a collection of tone-poems, each perfectly designed to suit its contents, each concerned with the expression of a single musical idea, and representing every mood, Chopin excelled himself in these miniatures, which gave full scope to his gifts for fine detail. The 24 études were written in two groups of 12. The first set, comprising Opus 10, are regarded as a unique contribution to the literature of the piano, and of particu'ar interest considering the age of the composer when he wrote them. Arthur Hedley, in his study of Chopin, notes that "the lad of 18 set out to write technical exercises and ended by creating a new genre, the étude as we know it, wherein material for technical study is made the vehicle for the expression of a deeper musical conception.". The second set of études, Opus 25, were published in 1837 after

Chopin came to Paris, and they complete the exposition of piano technique begun in the first 12. This group, especially No. 11 in A Minor, are often spirited and boisterous pieces, and show the composer in full mastery of his craft.