ely become the
stamping ground for the display of piano athletics. Nearly all modern
virtuosi pull to pieces the wings of this gay little butterfly. They
smash it, they bang it, and, adding insult to cruelty, they finish it
with three chords, mounting an octave each time, thus giving a
conventional character to the close--the very thing the composer
avoids. Much distorted phrasing is also indulged in. The Tellefsen's
edition and Klindworth's give these differences:

[Musical score excerpt]

Mikuli, Von Bulow and Kullak place the legato bow over the first three
notes of the group. Riemann, of course, is different:

[Musical score excerpt]

The metronomic markings are about the same in all editions.

Asiatic wildness, according to Von Bulow, pervades the B minor study,
op. 25, No. 10, although Willeby claims it to be only a study in
octaves "for the left hand"! Von Bulow furthermore compares it, because
of its monophonic character, to the Chorus of Dervishes in Beethoven's
"Ruins of Athens." Niecks says it is "a real pandemonium; for a while
holier sounds intervene, but finally hell prevails." The study is for
Kullak "somewhat far fetched and forced in invention, and leaves one
cold, although it plunges on wildly to the end." Von Bulow has made the
most complete edition. Klindworth strengthens the first and the seventh
eighth notes of the fifth bar before the last by filling in the
harmonics of the left hand. This etude is an important one,
technically; because many pianists make little of it that does not
abate its musical significance, and I am almost inclined to group it
with the last two studies of this opus. The opening is portentous and
soon becomes a driving whirlwind of tone. Chopin has never penned a
lovelier melody than the one in B--the middle section of this etude--it
is only to be compared to the one in the same key in the B minor
Scherzo, while the return to the first subject is managed as
consummately as in the E flat minor Scherzo, from op. 35. I confess to
being stirred by this B minor study, with its tempo at a forced draught
and with its precipitous close. There is a lushness about the octave
melody; the tune may be a little overripe, but it is sweet, sensuous
music, and about it hovers the hush of a rich evening in early autumn.

And now the "Winter Wind"--the study in A minor, op. 25, No. 11. Here
even Von Bulow becomes enthusiastic:

"It must be mentioned as a particular merit of this, the lo