Mendelssohn: Prelude and Fugue in e -- closing the cycle

Mendelssohn's Prelude and Fugue in e minor is among the prerequisites of Iearning Franck. Probably this one and Variations sérieuses will be the only Mendelssohn I ever play. I chose Cortot edition again (I wish I could read French...), and later came to know the performance by Marie-Catherine Girod. Her interpretation is emotional and uses tempo rubato rather than dynamics. It was fascinating to find the mechanic Prelude turns into a lyrical piece.

My playing is less dynamic and with less rubato. Still the piece has attractive driving power. In the coda, a choral in fortissimo is accompanied with octave scales with staccato. Here one should connect the choral melody with cantabile, but the accompaniment should not sound blurred too much. I tried to make the coda clean by use of sostenute pedal (instead of loud pedal) in combination with unusually forcing grasp of codes. This required physical strength. Unfortunately this treatment turned out that sonically unsatisfactory still. Maybe real pianists should live with the loud pedal and find the balance.

instrument: Yamaha C3X

This concludes my trials to study Franck's Prelude, choral and fugue. Here is the playlist. Lament: ~cycling around Prelude Choral and Fugue~ 1. Bach: Toccata from Partita 6 2. Mendelssohn: Prelude and Fugue Op.35-1 3. Mendelssohn: Variations sérieuses 4. Liszt: Variations by a motive by Bach 5. Franck: Prelude, Choral and Fugue 6. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in Fis (from WTC1 and WTC2, respectively)

I burned a CD and sent it to my first piano teacher. I hope she liked it.