Can anyone recommend a good edition of the Chopin Nocturnes? Good fingering suggestions are especially important as well as good readability (eyes not as good as they used to be ).

Thanks in advance!

The generally recommended edition for any Chopin music is the Paderewski (if I've spelled that right - I'm too tired to go and look on my shelf..........) which is probably not cheap these days. Can't say how you'd find the print though - it may be a little difficult - but the fingering is good, and from what I remember it's the academically accepted edition. Associated Board are generally pretty good and readable editions, but I've never seen their Chopin Nocturnes, so I can't say how it measures up for fingering and in general as an edition........but I think for readability it may be better. I'm sure someone else will have a copy and be able to say....

ABRSM ones are really good and they are nice to look at, bt not very good at staying open.

G.Schimer stays open nicely and is very cheap but it has been known the editing is very dodgy. Musicroom.com sales at GBP 12.95.

Dover does good scores based on Carl Mikuli (Chopin's student) editing. They are awful at staying open but is about the same price as the Schrimer.

Henle Verlag opens nicely, medium priced but the urtext editions based on the original manuscripts are world renowned for their accruacy and helpfulness. Musicroom.com has they for sale at GBP 13.95

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EDIT: I apologise about the ABRSM version, I was thinking of the waltzes. The nocturne book aparently only sells for GBP 9.95 on Musicroom.com

I bought a Schirmer edition for £4.50 from Amazon recently - not a price to be scoffed at!

I've got the ABRSM edition and sometimes the notes are a bit too close together for easy reading.

I'm playing Op.9 no2 and in this edition it's been squeezed onto 2 pages. It looks like they've weighed up whether a page turn or squashed up notes is the better compromise and gone for the squashed up notes.

Does anyone have an edition that's a bit more spaced out so the notes are easier to see?

Rebecca

Nothing much wrong with ABRSM's, its very clear

try urtext, i bought a chopin nocturne in c sharp minor which is quite high quality...
David.

If it's the Op posth C sharp minor, not only high quality but provides 2 different versions! (both different from the CD ROM version I printed off, all of which are different from either of the recordings I have, which are in turn different from each other - that's at least 5 different versions!!)

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions. Definitely won't go for Schirmer as their print is hard to read, but I guess I'll have to make the trip into Munich to have a look at some of the other editions. The Henle Verlag edition is readily available here but I would like to see it before buying.

Now I've got the excuse for the trip I just need to find the time...

Would just point out that the C#minor for some reason is not in the ABRSM edition. (It ends with No 19 in E Minor, a favourite of mine, set for Gr8 a few years ago)
Theres also another Nocturne on my Ashkenazy recording thats not in ABRSM edition, but I havent even managed to find a copy! From memory might be in A flat (Op Posth).

Wiener Urtext.


I can recommend a good optician too if you like. Have you looked into getting piano glasses? The focal length for reading piano music is different to reading normal text.