24 Preludes. Op.28. 22(mm. 2-end) - 24(mm. 1-17)

Continuing off of March 19th's theme of the importance of influences in a composer's life, in July of 1829 Chopin headed to Vienna.  The purpose of the trip really being simply to "make a name for himself" as the cliche goes.  Bidou writes that "he was famous at Warsaw.  But this local praise was no longer enough for him" (40).  Chopin desired to be judged by the same audiences who had heard Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.  When he arrived he met with a publisher named Haslinger who announced that Chopin's Variations on La ci darem la mano  would be published the following week.  In order to "stimulate the sales" Haslinger encouraged Chopin to give a concert performing the variations.  If you are in the music business you must be flexible and adaptable:

The concert took place on August 11, 1829, at the Imperial Theater.[...]  Chopin was to perform the Variations on la ci darem la manoand the Krakowiak for piano and orchestra.  But the orchestra had recieved Chopin with sour looks at the rehearsals, and made so many mistakes, that, by the advice of the manager, the composer had to replace the Krakowiak by two improvisations.[...] He sat down at the piano white with rage.  Perhaps his rage was an advantage.  "I was in despair and yet the Variations made such an impression it was followed by a thunder of applause and several recalls. (42)

Chopin then gave a second concert, this time playing the Krakowiak (apparently the orchestra just needed some practice).   It is interesting to think of composers not only being performers, but being such virtuosic musicians that they are able to give a performance based purely on improvising on a few themes!  In today's musical culture, improvisations are usually done with a background band or ensemble.  It's hard to picture going to a performance where the musician simply sits down at a piano, completely exposed, and improvises on a theme, sometimes a theme chosen from the audience then and there.

While in Vienna Chopin met Gyrowetz (conductor and composer of over 150 works), played works for two pianos with Czerny (a composer of over a thousand works), made acquaintances with Schuppanzigh (first to interpret Beethoven's quartets), met the violinist Mayseder, met the composer Konradin Kreutzer, composer Franz Lachner (only 26 at the time), and the composer Seyfried, among many others.

Chopin left Vienna after having made the impact he was hoping for.

Prelude 22 was a wonderful piece once I finished it, although I did take it quite slow.

Prelude 23 was also taken much slower, however, I don't think that it took away from the piece.  Looking at the piece initially I was hesitant due to the non-stop 16th note melodic line, however, within the context of the piece it made for a beautiful melody.  This is the only prelude so far that does not have a definite end!  The 16th notes in both hands simply run straight into a quarter note with a fermata without any written ritardando. It is the Eb that occurs in the second to last bar that makes the piece sound like it ends on a I7.

One page into prelude 24 is not enough to write about, more tomorrow.  (I feel like this is becoming a theme.)

Total time spent sight reading: 30 minutes
Total time spent writing: 1 hour