The Bohemian pianist Julius Schulhoff, who was a friend of Chopin, and probably
absorbed some of his style of playing, probably had the biggest influence on
Leschetizky’s piano playing, apart from Czerny.
When Leschetizky was twenty years old he heard Schulhoff play and was amazed by
‘that cantabile, a legato such as [he] had not dreamed possible on the piano, a human
voice rising above the sustaining harmonies!’ Leschetizky then tried very hard to find
that touch which produced such beautiful tones. He stopped playing pieces and just
worked on exercises in order to train his fingers.
So far as melody delaying and melody anticipation are concerned, it is clear, in the
present writer’s, view that Chopin played this way, at the very least on some occasions in
some of his own piano compositions. Leschetizky was born in 1830 so he was nineteen
when Chopin died and, even if he never heard Chopin play, at the least he would have
been familiar with the way pianists played in Chopin’s time. In particular he had heard
Chopin’s friend Schulhoff play.
So far as arpeggiata is concerned, the only evidence is from Mikuli who stated about
Chopin that ‘in double notes and chords he demanded precisely simultaneous attacks;
breaking the chord was permitted only where the composer himself specified it.’ Unless
Chopin had one rule for others and a different rule for himself, from Mikuli’s evidence it
seems that Chopin did not use arpeggiata in playing his own works. But as Brahms had
one rule for others and a different rule for himself in relation to arpeggiata, the possibility
that Chopin used arpeggiata in playing his own works cannot be ruled out.
Marcerlina Czartoryska, who was a pupil of Chopin in the last two years of his life said:
‘Chopin did not ever exaggerate his fantasy, being guided by his outstanding aesthetic
instinct. We are delivered from any exaggeration or false pathos by the simplicity of his
poetic enthusiasm and moderation. The rubato of Chopin’s rhythm liberated from all
school bonds, but never passed into disharmony, nor anarchy. To play Chopin without
any rules, without rubato, veiling his accents, we hear not Chopin, but his caricature.
Chopin disclaimed over-sensitivity as false, and as a man educated in the music of Bach
and Mozart, he could never seek capricious or exaggerated tempi. He would not stand
for anything that could destroy the basic outlines of a composition, and, therefore, took
care that students should not arbitrarily change tempi.’
Works
The following is a list of Chopin’s main piano works:
Ballades
- G minor opus 23
- F minor opus 38
- A flat major opus 47