With its simple melody, haunting harmonies, and space for liberal use of tempo rubato, the Prelude in E Minor is one of Chopin’s most beautiful compositions—one that gives the student a wonderful work to perform, while also teaching the pianist a great deal about finesse and interpretation.
When we think of Chopin, one of the things that always comes to mind is melody. He was inspired by the operas of Bellini, who stated that a composition needs three things: melody, melody, and always melody. However, if you play the right hand part of this work, you will not find much in the way of a melody.
The magic happens when the very simple melodic idea is combined with the beautiful harmonies. I think this is the key to the interpretation. If one plays the left hand by itself and listen to where you think the harmonies brighten or become darker, then you approach the essence of this music.
The Prelude in E Minor builds to its powerful climax at measures 16–18 and then moves away, as if exhausted by the emotion. From measure 18 to the end, one should pace the calming of the emotion through continual diminuendo and ritardando.
Here is how Grigory Sokolov does it:
