Rubinstein and Chopin's Polonaise

Artur Rubinstein

To be blunt, Artur Rubinstein is one of the only pianists in history who performed Chopin's Polonaise in A-flat Major, Op. 53, correctly.

Nine months ago, my dear friend, Dr. Robert Fertitta, was studying and analyzing this piece and shared modified scans of each page of the score to myself and several other musical colleagues - challenging us to figure out what was meant by the modifications.

Today, I figured out exactly what was meant. Further, I realized that by this analysis, Artur Rubinstein is one of the few performers who have played the piece correctly enough to use as a model, at least in recording.


What is meant by this? Simply the adherence to the beat of three. Note that the very first measure is a quarter note, followed by an eight rest, followed by a group of two and then four sixteenth-notes. The quarter note is beat one, the eighth rest is beat two, the third sixteenth note (the first in the group of four) is beat the three. Going by the beat of the sixteenth note, the first measure is as follows:


Beat 1 of 3 - E-flat                       (16th beat = 1-2-3-4)
Beat 2 of 3 - Eighth rest              (16th beat = 1-2)
                   A-natural                 (16th beat = 3)
                   B-flat                       (16th beat = 4)
Beat 3 of 3 - B-natural                 (16th beat = 1)
                   C                             (16th beat = 2)
                   C-sharp                   (16th beat = 3)
                   D natural                  (16th beat = 4)

Then in the second measure, the eighth note of the E-flat chord is beat one. One is the downbeat in this beat of three, so this E-flat chord should be the downbeat of the second measure. HOWEVER, most pianists completely ignore this. They completely ignore the 16th beat for the first measure, turning it into a beat of two or a beat of three which ends not on the beat three which Chopin specified, but rather on what is supposed to be beat one of the second measure. The only two pianists I know of - and I've listened to a myriad of performances in this study - who perform measures one and two correctly as written (and the rhythmically identical measure groups of five and six, nine and ten, and eleven and twelve) are Artur Rubinstein and Evgeny Kissin. Those two pianists play the first two measures of the Polonaise rhythmically correct, like this:

1-2-3-1-2-3

Most pianists play the actual beats something like this, written here in actual beats:

1-3-1-2-3

Notice the first beat two isn't there... practically all pianists completely skip the second beat of the first measure and render it completely insane rhythmically. This translates into this:

1-2-3-1-2

Now you see that this mistake also makes the first two measures equivalent to five beats, even though it is actually six beats. So where does the sixth beat have to go when a pianist plays it wrong like this? Not on beat three of measure two, but rather on beat one of measure three. This bring about another problem...

In measures three, four, seven, eight, and thirteen through sixteen, the beat of three is constantly turned into a beat of two by pianists. The groups of sixteenth notes in measures three and four (as well as the rhythmically identical seven and eight) are almost always played, written here in their actual beats, like this (the second three is crossed out to show that it is a dead, useless, senseless beat the way most perform it):

2-3-1-2-3

This translates into this beat:

1-2-1-2-unspecified beat (rhythmically useless)

Now this makes no sense because of the grouping. Why does this happen in so many performances? Partly because beat one of measure three is being turned into a beat three for measure two, making up for the omission of beat two in measure one. So as most pianists play the Polonaise, measures one through four go like this rhythmically, using actual beats here (The measure is specified by the color of the numbers, B3 = beat of 3, B2 = beat of 2):

  B3      B3     B2   B2
1-3-1 - 2-3-1 - 2-3 - 1-2 - 3

Does it get anymore discombobulated than this? Notice how the measures are split up nonsensically! The beat, very simply, is actually like this:

  B3       B3      B3      B3
1-2-3 - 1-2-3 - 1-2-3 - 1-2-3

So, if this is entirely caused by the omission of beat two in the first measure, then both Rubinstein and Kissin should play measures three and four correctly, right? Wrong. Kissin plays the first two measures correctly and then still makes beat two the downbeat in a fake beat of two. This doesn't just happen in measures three and four, it also happens in the following measures with nearly all pianists (in fact, as far as I know, every pianist who has recorded this piece except Artur Rubinstein):

3, 4, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 63, 64, 67, 68, 71, 72, 73, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 87, 88, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 107, 108, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 151, 152, 153, 154, 157, 158, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 177, and 178.

That's eighty-nine out of one-hundred-eighty-one measures. Basically, most pianists play somewhere in the neighborhood of 49% of the entire masterpiece rhythmically incorrect. Now this is a very subtle thing, but if one goes through and listens and analyzes, Rubinstein is the only performer to be found who plays this entire piece as it is written correctly.

Lets celebrate by listening to the great Rubinstein himself playing. Here's to one of the greatest performers who ever lived!