Amateur Hour: Chopin Prelude in A

Episode 3 of a deep dive for pianists into Chopin's Preludes (op. 28). This time around we're mostly looking at the pedal, the "soul of the piano", according to Anton Rubinstein. We'll see how to apply it to this prelude, where it is crucial to use it at its full range of motion (especially on modern pianos, less so on the pianos of Chopin's day). We'll end with a brief look into how Chopin (probably) thought about the piece as he wrote it. 00:00 Introduction 01:45 Pedal: Strings & hammers 04:52 Pedal: Dampers 09:33 Pedal: Soul of the piano 16:44 Pedal: Half-pedaling 18:50 Pedal: Prelude 21:20 Pedal: Practicing 23:22 Composition 26:47 Prelude REFERENCES Anton Rubinstein on the soul of the piano: I can't find the exact quote, but I suspect I read this in Reginald Gerig's "Famous Pianists and Their Technique" (2007), which I highly recommend. As it happens, I also see the quote on Rubinstein's Wikipedia page, sourced to Rachmaninoff, itself collected in Oscar von Riesemann's "Rachmaninoff's Recollections" (1934). CITATIONS Sheet music: Complete Works for the Piano, Vol. 8: Preludes and Rondos G. Schirmer, NY (1895) Edited by Carl Mikuli Sourced from the Petrucci Music Library (https://imslp.org/wiki/Special:Revers...) Fast-forward icon: Made by "nawicon", licensed to https://www.flaticon.com Harpsichord detail: Harpsichord built by Christian Zell Shot by Sguastevi, 2009 Museu de la Musica de Barcelona Sourced from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... All piano b-roll: Kawai GL-30 (baby grand) Carmen Maftei, 2025