IMSLP Forums

I understand that such notes must be played neither staccato nor slurred, without pedal, e.g. http://imslp.org/wiki/Nocturne_%28Buona ... iuseppe%29

But in addition to this I believe the hand or finger must be released slowly between the notes, so the dampers do not act to fast, to avoid the impression of rests between the notes.

Do teachers teach this? Is there a piano method - old or modern - online or not - that states this explicitely?

The problem with this piece -- not a very interesting work, in my opinion, because of its repetitiveness -- is that the staccato dots under a slur (which can mean both legato-ness and/or denote a phrase) appear in several different contexts. At the beginning, you have dots and slurs but explicitly no pedal. But at the end, you have dots, slurs plus pedal. At the end of the piece, I think the composer simply wants the staccato notes to be articulated cleanly, and since the pedal is down, preventing the staccato notes from blending into a legato will indeed require performing them with a little space in between each note. At the beginning, I think he wants the staccato notes to be slightly lengthened compared to the short, sharp, shocks that would result if the slurs hadn't been there. The slurs here can also imply a slight dynamic nuance (crescendo) into the following bar. But there will still have to be a small space between the 8th notes while the dampers are down and the next note hasn't yet been struck, otherwise you'll get legato. On top of this, you have to make the all these articulations sound DIFFERENT than the explicitly legato-marked 8th notes that enter on page 3. I hope this helps, particularly since I don't have access to a piano to try these things out while I'm typing.

--Sixtus