DESCRIPTION:
According to Chopin's pupil;, Madam Streicher , Chopin practiced only the music of Bach in preparing for a concert and that he never practiced his own compositions. Madam Steicher heard Chopin play at least 14 of the Preludes and Fugues from the WTC by memory. Liszt is reported as saying that Chopin was "an enthusiastic pupil of Bach." If there was any doubt about Bach's influence upon Chopin, this etude provides the proof of that influence. ( Musicologist Hugo Leichtentritt ,among others, have noted the relationship between this etude and Bach's Prelude No. I in C major from Bk 1 WTC.) Pachmann evidently realized this influence and plays the etude as though it was a great chorale. Listen not only to the harmonic structure but also to the melodic phrases that Pachmann pursues through the entire work.