J.-S. Bach and his Well-Tempered Clavier were tutelary figures for many 19th century composers, from Beethoven to Brahms, from Mendelssohn and Schumann to Franck and Fauré, from Alkan and Boëly to Liszt and Schoenberg. Coming from another horizon, Chopin was educated in Warsaw in the cult of Preludes & Fugues, which he knew by heart to the point of playing impromptu "more than half of a collection". Bach is the source of his training as a pianist, his profession as a composer and his repertoire as a teacher. His students all went through it: after five years of teaching, he advised one of the best among them to “always work on Bach. This will be your best way to progress. » This facsimile reproduces an edition of the first book, annotated by Chopin during the training of a late pupil, Pauline Chazaren, who was to pursue a career in private teaching: chosen by Liszt (who had directed her to Chopin), she had to teach the young Cosima at the very time when she was working with Chopin. Entirely autographs, the annotations relate to the execution (fingerings, distribution of intermediate voices between the two hands, etc.), the "analysis" of the most elaborate fugues through an identification of the themes in their various presentations, finally the very careful – for the first Preludes & Fugues – of the performance indications by Czerny (1837), which he became aware of through the Parisian publication of the widow Launer. This humility at the end of his career is not the least moving feature of a new and unknown document, which sheds a precise light on Chopin's links with his mentor, as in his role as a pedagogue. Second edition (first edition published on March 1, 2010).
- ISBN: 9782853570213 (2853570215)
