Chopin Prelude E minor Op.28 no.4 GrandArtist preset Impressionistic

Don't think of this as criticism, because I'm not qualified remotely to criticize anyone's piano playing, but a couple of remarks on that piece.  You can play it better than I can, that's for sure. :-)

Your rendition of this is about 2 minutes 15 sec.

Over the years people (i.e. internationally recognized pianists) have started playing this piece really slowly.  This trend seems to have started sometime in the 1970's.  But there is evidence that this piece was intended to be played a lot more quickly.  Certainly many earlier recordings at at a faster tempo.

I'd site a recording by Raoul Koczalski, a respected student of a student of Chopin who made many recordings of Chopin.  He did record the Op 28 pieces and you can listen to them here :

Chopin Preludes Op 28 No's 1-14 Koczalski Rec 1938- 39.

Op 28-4 starts at about 2:55 and ends at 4:14.  That's just 1 minute and 19 seconds !  And I've never heard a faster rendition, BTW.

Now whether you (or anyone else) prefers this piece at one tempo or another is a matter of taste, of course.  However as Koczalski was a student of a student of Chopin I'd suggest people at least give some thought to playing this piece faster.

I've seen the piece annotated as "Largo", but if you take the Koczalski recording as an indication of Chopin's intent (which you don't have to, naturally), I'd argue for a faster tempo.  I'm not sure if "Largo" was an original notation (by Chopin) - anyone with info feel free to let me know.

My favorite modern recording is this video by pianist Kousuke Takahashi :

Chopin ： Prelude in E minor,Op. 28‐No. 4

This at least shows that I'm not the only person who thinks it should be played at more brisk tempo.  So I'd encourage people to try playing this piece at a faster pace than many modern versions do.  ( And some day I'd like to be able to do that myself. :-) ).

Nobody enjoyed Dublin this winter except the kids off school in the snow ! :-)

The Pogorelich version is very slow at a crawling 2:30 ( for my taste, since I heard Koczalski, which was a revelation for me ) but he certainly does have the delicacy of touch to pull it off well.  Despite it's slowness it would be impossible not to admire it, I think.

The piece was titled "Suffocation" by Hans von Bülow, and while I think a lot of people play it (and like it) as a melancholic mood piece, I tend to think of it as a statement of frustration ( e.g. suffocation of the soul, frustration of the spirit).  So a steady building tone, then a burst of energy followed by resignation of the will with the very restrained end.  A statement of imprisoned passion, rather than melancholy or romance, perhaps.

Wikipedia's page on the prelude gives some  interesting remarks on the original title.

Chopin supposedly marked it "smorzando" which can (apparently) mean dullness, or to grow fainter.  George Sand is reputed to have named it "Quelles larmes au fond du cloître humide?" ("What tears [are shed] from the depths of the damp monastery?") and I confess I have no idea how to interpret that. :-)