It might truly be called ‘l’indispensable du pianiste,’ if the term, through misuse, had not fallen into disrepute.  As a remedy for stiff fingers and preparatory to performing in public, playing it six times through is recommended, even to the most expert pianist.”  Only six times!  The separate study of the left hand is recommended.  Kullak finds this study “surprisingly euphonious, but devoid of depth of content.”  It is an admirable study for the cultivation of double sixths.  It contains a remarkable passage of consecutive fifths that set the theorists by the ears.  Riemann manages to get some new editorial comment upon it.

The nimble study, No. 9, which bears the title of “The Butterfly,” is in G flat Von Bulow transposes it enharmonically to F sharp, avoiding numerous double flats.  The change is not laudable.  He holds anything but an elevated opinion of the piece, classing it with a composition of the Charles Mayer order.  This is unjust; the study if not deep is graceful and certainly very effective.  It has lately become the stamping ground for the display of piano athletics.  Nearly all modern virtuosi pull to pieces the wings of this gay little butterfly.  They smash it, they bang it, and, adding insult to cruelty, they finish it with three chords, mounting an octave each time, thus giving a conventional character to the close—­the very thing the composer avoids.  Much distorted phrasing is also indulged in.  The Tellefsen’s edition and Klindworth’s give these differences: 

[Musical score excerpt]

Mikuli, Von Bulow and Kullak place the legato bow over the first three notes of the group.  Riemann, of course, is different: 

[Musical score excerpt]

The metronomic markings are about the same in all editions.

Asiatic wildness, according to Von Bulow, pervades the B minor study, op. 25, No. 10, although Willeby claims it to be only a study in octaves “for the left hand”!  Von Bulow furthermore compares it, because of its monophonic character, to the Chorus of Dervishes in Beethoven’s “Ruins of Athens.”  Niecks says it is “a real pandemonium; for a while holier sounds intervene, but finally hell prevails.”  The study is for Kullak “somewhat far fetched and forced in invention, and leaves one cold, although it plunges on wildly to the end.”  Von Bulow has made the most complete edition.  Klindworth strengthens the first and the seventh eighth notes of the fifth bar before the last by filling in the harmonics of the left hand.  This etude is an important one, technically; because many pianists make little of it that does not abate its musical significance, and I am almost inclined to group it with the last two studies of this opus.  The opening is portentous and soon becomes a driving whirlwind of tone.  Chopin has never penned a lovelier melody than the one in B—­the middle section of this etude—­it is only to be compared to the one in the same key in the B minor Scherzo, while the return to the first subject is managed as consummately as in the E flat minor Scherzo, from op. 35.  I confess to being stirred by this B minor study, with its tempo at a forced draught and with its precipitous close.  There is a lushness about the octave melody; the tune may be a little overripe, but it is sweet, sensuous music, and about it hovers the hush of a rich evening in early autumn.