thinks the twelfth and last study of op. 25 in C minor "a grand,
magnificent composition for practice in broken chord passages for both
hands, which requires no comment." I differ from this worthy teacher.
Rather is Niecks more to my taste: "No. 12, C minor, in which the
emotions rise not less high than the waves of arpeggios which symbolize
them."

Von Bulow is didactic:

The requisite strength for this grandiose bravura study can
only be attained by the utmost clearness, and thus only by a
gradually increasing speed. It is therefore most desirable to
practise it piano also by way of variety, for otherwise the
strength of tone might easily degenerate into hardness, and in
the poetic striving after a realistic portrayal of a storm on
the piano the instrument, as well as the piece, would come to
grief.

The pedal is needful to give the requisite effect, and must
change with every new harmony; but it should only be used in
the latter stages of study, when the difficulties are nearly
mastered.

We have our preferences. Mine in op. 25 is the C minor study, which,
like the prelude in D minor, is "full of the sound of great guns."
Willeby thinks otherwise. On page 81 in his life of Chopin he has the
courage to write: "Had Professor Niecks applied the term monotonous to
No. 12 we should have been more ready to indorse his opinion, as,
although great power is manifested, the very 'sameness' of the form of
the arpeggio figure causes a certain amount of monotony to be felt."
The C minor study is, in a degree, a return to the first study in C.
While the idea in the former is infinitely nobler, more dramatic and
tangible, there is in the latter naked, primeval simplicity, the larger
eloquence, the elemental puissance. Monotonous? A thousand times no!
Monotonous as is the thunder and spray of the sea when it tumbles and
roars on some sullen, savage shore. Beethov-ian, in its ruggedness, the
Chopin of this C minor study is as far removed from the musical
dandyisms of the Parisian drawing rooms as is Beethoven himself. It is
orchestral in intention and a true epic of the piano.

Riemann places half notes at the beginning of each measure, as a
reminder of the necessary clinging of the thumbs. I like Von Bulow's
version the best of all. His directions are most minute. He gives the
Liszt method of working up the climax in octave triplets. How Liszt
must have thundered through this tumultuous work! Before i