He laughs, having solved Chopin’s riddles that puzzle us in the way we, like Manya, look on to something hard to grasp. Alfred Cortot (appearing here like a consigliere, with Cziffra and someone else)
came out with an edition that included finger-busting exercises towards mastering Chopin’s Etudes, of which Ignace Tiegerman commented that Cortot himself probably needed them. Friedman took up the challenge and even asked Moriz Rosenthal for advice that was included in the footnotes.
Four volumes published by Breitkopf & Hartel comprise Friedman’s efforts but World War I made it difficult to send scores outside of Germany and the plates were probably destroyed. To compile an edition this writer found one in New York, another in Copenhagen, then Stockholm and Munich. Here are the pages with comments; otherwise the rest is similar to his volume that appeared in his complete Chopin edition for the publisher. Debussy admired Friedman’s edition and referred to it while preparing his own for Durand.
Help yourself to Friedman’s suggestions:
©2019 Arbiter of Cultural Traditions