Technical Features of ChopinÂ’s Piano Style

Abstract

The performing art ennobles, through all its elements, music in its completeness, lifting it to the level of artistic events. However, musical performance is not always synonym with the performing art, although it often correlates on a wide range of technical significances.Chopin’s music acquired new dimensions after he left Poland. Biographical factors must have put a mark on his stylistic maturation – a radical change from the admiration nurtured by Warsaw, to Vienna’s indifference, and a growing disappointment towards the career intended by the composer-pianist. Regardless of the causes that driven the change, the development were reflected not only in Chopin’s musical style, but also in his demeanour of approaching a composition. He invested more in his activity as a composer than in his activity as a pianist. Generally, it is not difficult to conclude on the changes in the nature of his style. An essential starting point is to recognize that Chopin’s musical style crystallized less according to the classical Viennese model than to the post-classical repertoire. This style was occasionally described as the brilliant style, which Chopin embraced and remodelled in his works.It is well known that the way in which Chopin's music is performed undergoes constant changes with each new generation, with each new pianist. The change occurs through the selections among the richness of his music and those specific elements of expression that suit them best and may be used to emphasize in their performances. However, the choice should be attributed to the Chopin's genius and his unique and distinct personality, which reflect the most characteristic features of his culture and customs. Comments on the music are exceptionally instructive because of Chopin’s performing traditions. Cantabile, rubato, tempo giusto, the play with sound timbres, the flexibility in observing metric benchmarks that contribute to the unification of all elements specific to a musical piece and comply with the need of using an adequate prosody of musical phrase, the pedalling according to Chopin’s annotations, but also to the varying acoustic conditions in concert-halls – all these are the basic elements, conferring clearness and accuracy upon the conveyance of the composer’s thought.The sounds, the melody, the structural purity, the rhythmical elasticity, the pelicular rubato – all are essential elements to Chopin’s creativity and they establish the tradition as objectively as possible on the basis of interpretational phenomenology.