Editions

You need a good edition of the music you are learning. 'Good' means 'correct'. Correct means that what you see on the page is what the composer wanted you to see, in other words, that no-one has altered or improved the original.

Sometimes there are a variety of originals, so it's not a simple matter to make an edition. But you have to find the best one you can. Because you need your instructions - the notes on the page. If you haven't got that, then what are you learning?

For Chopin, I use Henle's Urtext Edition. I always used to play from old editions like Augener, mainly because I liked the printing. And when I first looked at Henle I was sure I didn't want to play Chopin in German. But now I need them, because my other editions don't tell me the whole story. They also have extra notes and words that I would like to forget now, please!

But having said this, Henle isn't perfect. Look at the beginning of Chopin's B Flat Minor Sonata (Op. 35). When you play the repeat from the end of the exposition back to the start, consider whether you should go right to the beginning (the introduction, "Grave"), or repeat from just after that (in B Flat Minor now, "Doppio Movimento"). Because only one of these is correct. The answer is: the exposition finishes in D Flat Major, and you repeat right from the very beginning which begins on a D Flat. The other way doesn't make sense, so I have applied myself to removing that from my Henle edition. (See Charles Rosen's The Romantic Generation for more details on this matter).