Ballades: Chopin National Edition Volume I (Series A. Works Published During Chopins Lifetime)

print quality is nice and clear. The Performance Commentary booklet is very helpful as well.

Excellent edition of Chopin’s Ballades delivered in very good order. Highly recommended.

slightly disappointed with the quality of the music produced and even more disappointed since it’s the edition that the chopin institute recommend themselves to use from!! the top of some pages of some were still stuck together and some looked like they were ripped off from the fuzzy rip you usually see on ripped paper, or badly cut off. the back page arrived creased and the book just look used despite no pen/pencil markings in it. moving away from its physical imperfections, as a whole the quality of the paper feels too thin; like schrimer’s copies and like printer paper and feels really fragile. the way the text and music is formatted is not a very pleasing sight to the eye and it feels rather complicated to read which it shouldn’t feel. additionally the form of notation used and some edits of the actual notes on the paper is confusing and a very odd way of laying it out, as a pianist i wouldn’t be able to read it with fluidity at a first glance. all in all, i would rather spend a bit more for henle editions instead.

good

I love the markings in this. Very enlightening commentary and fingerings. The best edition I have seen so far- even better than Paderewski or Henli.

Ottima edizione, rilegatura molto buona che permette al libro di rimanere sempre aperto, sia nelle prime che nelle ultime pagine. Ben fatti anche i suggerimenti di diteggiatura (spesso ne vengono forniti molteplici) e l'apparato critico, fornito in un libretto a parte scollegato dal libro principale. La carta non è bianca ma color seppia, quasi uguale a quella utilizzata da Henle Verlag per le sue edizioni (sebbene la carta Henle appaia leggermente più robusta in quanto leggermente più spessa e con una texture un pochino diversa).È l'edizione che viene consigliata per lo studio dal concorso Chopin e basterebbe questo per acquistarla, avendola utilizzata per mesi non posso che essere d'accordo e consigliarla a mia volta. Concludo dicendo che oltre alla diteggiatura del curatore, se esistente è presente anche quella originale di Chopin, indicata con i numeri in grassetto, e ci sono anche le versioni alternative di vari passaggi che si trovano in diverse edizioni/ manoscritti delle ballate.

Chopin is Goated. Must have in your repertoire collection

I really like this edition. Lots of good fingering options as well as explanation of variations found within the different sources of the text.However, even though it doesn't apply to this volume specifically, I think it was a stupid idea for this publisher to create separate volumes for the posthumously published pieces. I assume this decision is part of attempting to be as faithful to Chopin's intentions as possible, but is especially annoying for the Mazurkas, Waltzes, etc. If you're going to publish the unpublished pieces anyway, why not put them in the same volume.