How should a melody be treated when switched from right to left hand?

Question

For example, in Chopin's Etude Op 10, No. 4 (Torrent), the melody is initially in the right hand and it's accompanied by the left hand.

A few bars after, the right takes over the same accompaniment and the left hand takes over the exact same melody, but just in a lower octave.

Now my question is how the exact same melody should be treated when the left hand takes it over in a lower octave and the right hand takes over the same accompaniment. I have watched recordings of many different professional pianists performing this étude and in every recording, the chords in the right hand dominate over the melody in the left hand. My thoughts are, that the melody in the left hand should be the one which is played clearly and dominating over the right hand, while the right hand is simply doing the accompaniment. Is this thought correct? I was wondering if there's a technical explanation as to why most pianists suddenly don't pay attention to the left hand and let the right hand dominate, whilst the melody and the accompaniment are simply switched, but they still always focus on the right hand. Does the accompaniment suddenly become the melody when swapped? That doesn't make much sense. In Chopin's Op 10, No.8 (Sunshine), the left hand also takes the melody, so the right hand doesn't always take the melody I'd assume.

Answer 1

The melody should always be prominent in music, and the accompaniment should be in the background. This is true of all music, no matter if it is being played by a solo piano or guitar or whether it is being played in an ensemble.

The idea that lower notes are harder to bring out in melody is not a reason to cause it to be smothered. It just means the accompaniment needs to be played even more softly. I am accompanist and have accompanied double bass quite often. It is the pianist's responsibility to play more softly because the bass simply cannot play louder. The same is true if the melody is in the LH of the piano music.

Good piano teachers teach their students to bring out the melody, regardless of which hand it is in. Pianists with good training are not trained to bring out the RH. They are trained to bring out the voicing that needs to be brought out. Say, in a fugue for example. Different voices at all ranges need to be brought out at different times, while other voices are still being heard. As a pianist, I have to bring out certain notes and put others in the background in the same hand.

There is no good reason for a professional player not to bring out the LH in this section. A professional player should be almost ambidextrous in their ability to manage technical feats.

Answer 2

In this musical example, the problem isn't which hand plays the melody, it's which octave the melody is in, and the mechanics of the piano.

When the melody moves to the bass clef, fast sixteenths blur together because the heavy bass strings don't damp as instantly as the light treble strings. If you play that very loudly to distract the ear from the staccato accompaniment higher up, then the passing tones turn the melody into chromatic mud. Although a robot might be able to play it loud and staccatissimo, that's not how Chopin notates it.

Beethoven's fifth symphony, third movement, "dancing elephants" fast cello + double bass melody doesn't suffer as much from this because each note ends as the next note is fingered.