Étude Op. 10, No. 5 (mm. 24-end) - 7

In the spring of 1834 Chopin went with Ferdinand Hiller, a fellow pianist, to attend a music festival in Aix-la-Chapelle, known today as Aachen located on the western edge of Germany.  At this festival he and Hiller became friends with the composer Mendelssohn.  From Mendelssohn we can learn a bit about Chopin and Hiller's personalities as well as playing styles.  Mendelssohn wrote a letter to his mother saying that

He (Chopin) and Hiller have considerably improved their technical equipment.  Chopin is now the first among pianists.  His playing provides us with as many surprises as we find under Paganini's bow.  Hiller is also a virtuoso full of strength and grace.  Unfortunately they both have the Parisian mania for the tragic pose.  They exaggerate the sentiment, and time and rhythm suffer for it.  But since, for my part, I go to the opposite extreme, the result is that we complement each other.  I seem a perfect pedant, while they are like modish young exquisites. (Bidou 106)

So when performing Chopin or Hiller, exaggerate rubato, the musical line, expression, and bring out the emotion in the piece.  When performing Mendelssohn, use rubato, but remain much more reserved and never lose a sense of time.

I considered yesterday one of my better sight reading days!  Etude 7 came rather easy and is a beautiful piece. In my piano lesson on Monday my teacher had me sight read a hymn, as she often does, out of the blue Mennonite hymnal.  The sight reading came much more naturally than it ever had in the past and for the first time she simply said "good" and we continued with the lesson.  It seems that even after two weeks this has been paying off!  I also decided to supplement my sight reading with a few beginner piano books.

Since I am now blogging every other day I will add up my time for the last two days:
Total time spent sight reading: 1 hour
Total time spent writing: 30 minutes