I analyzed Richter’s performance of the Chopin prelude and color-coded the tempo. Richter slows down and speeds up at certain points, and it was interesting to figure out where and somehow note it for myself.
The height of the red line indicates tempo. The higher the line, the higher the average tempo in that spot. The comments show the average duration in seconds. In measure 17, the tempo briefly jumps to 60 quarters per minute (4 seconds per measure). On average, it stays around 39-42 (about 6 sec/measure). At the end, it slows down to 31 BPM (7.6 sec per measure), in measure 22.
Actually, I wasn’t planning to post this here, but in a nearby private group, it somehow got 140 shares and 500 likes overnight, so I’m sharing it in the open, in case it’s of use to anyone.
PDF for printing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OmwL8x3UuFSh62Kr_ML0AIfZDToEzZh-/view?usp=sharing
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 