Étude Op. 25, No. 10 (Chopin)

Étude Op. 25, No. 10 is a study in legato octave playing, along with melodic motifs to be played within the octaves. The technical and musical difficulties of the piece are such that even Vladimir Horowitz considered it to be "unplayable". This sort of legato octave playing is quite distinct from the more bravura style of Liszt, and requires fingered octaves in both hands, along with extremely subtle pedalling (which cannot be notated, of course, as it varies according to piano, acoustic and pianist). Like all of Chopin's studies, the piece is in a conventional ternary form.

The first theme is presented as a series of eighth note-tuplets in cut time, but not in ¹²
₈ time, played at a very fast tempo of Allegro. The second theme is in B minor's parallel major, B major, and in triple metre. The second theme is repeated four times, and develops into a variation of the first theme, returning to cut time and B minor.

Copious pedal point notes and phrase markings are present in the second theme, but the entire étude lacks any pedal indications. Similar to the Op. 10, No. 4 étude, Chopin emphasizes legato playing through the phrasing and (lack of) pedal marking. Throughout the entire work, Chopin marks only five dynamic markings. However, implicitly the first theme starts off as piano or quieter, since the instruction given is poco a poco crescendo, reaching the dynamic of forte only in bar 6. Similarly, the second theme is initially notated as piano but is hardly restricted to this dynamic, according to all of Chopin's instructions in the score'.[1]

• Analysis of Chopin Etudes at Chopin: the poet of the piano
• Études Op. 25: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Op. 25, No. 10 played by Josef Lhévinne
• Op. 25, No. 10 played by Alfred Cortot
• Op. 25, No. 10 played by Claudio Arrau
• Op. 25, No. 10 played by Vladimir Ashkenazy
• Op. 25, No. 10 played by Maurizio Pollini
• Op. 25, No. 10 played by Andrei Gavrilov