Ballade No.1 // CHOPIN

Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23, dates to sketches Chopin made in 1831 during his eight-month stay in Vienna. It was completed in 1835 after his move to Paris, where he dedicated it to Baron Nathaniel von Stockhausen, the Hanoverian ambassador to France. In 1836 Robert Schumann commented that, "I received a new Ballade from Chopin. It seems to be a work closest to his genius (although not the most ingenious) and I told him that I like it best of all his compositions. After quite a lengthy silence he replied with emphasis, 'I am happy to hear this since I too like it most and hold it dearest.'"

The piece begins with a brief introduction which, contrary to popular belief, is not unrelated to the rest of the piece. Written in the first inversion of the A♭ major chord, it is a Neapolitan chord that implies a majestic aura, ending in a dissonant, questioning left-hand chord D, G, and E♭ that is not resolved until later on in the piece. Though Chopin's original manuscript clearly marks an E♭ as the top note, the chord has caused some degree of controversy, and thus, some versions of the work – such as the Klindworth edition – include D, G, D as an ossia. The main section of the Ballade is built from two main themes. The brief introduction fades into the first theme, introduced at measure 8. After some elaboration, the second theme is introduced softly at measure 68. This theme is also elaborated on. Both themes then return in different keys, and the first theme finally returns again in the same key, albeit with an altered left hand accompaniment. A thundering chord introduces the coda, marked Presto con fuoco, to which the initial Neapolitan harmony re-emerges in constant dynamic forward propulsion, which eventually ends the piece in a fiery double octave scale run down the keyboard. As a whole, the piece is structurally complex and not strictly confined to any particular form, but incorporates ideas from mainly the sonata and variation forms.

Ballade No. 1 is featured prominently in several films. It is performed on-screen in Gaslight by the Polish pianist Jakob Gimpel, credited as the Pianist. A performance of the piece is central to the plot of the 2002 Roman Polanski film The Pianist, where it moves a German officer to hide and supply with food the pianist, Władysław Szpilman, played by Adrien Brody. On the soundtrack, it is played by Janusz Olejniczak. It also appears in the 1991 film Impromptu, where Chopin is playing this piece when he is interrupted by George Sand and meets her for the first time. The piece was also the subject of the 2013 Channel 4 documentary Chopin Saved My Life. It is quoted in Mieczysław Weinberg's Symphony No. 21 ("Kaddish").
(Source: Wikipedia)

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Work Title: Ballade No.1
Composer: Frédéric Chopin
Year of Composition: 1831 (first version), 1834-35 (final version)
First Publication: 1836
Piece Style: Romantic

Performer: Inesa Sinkevych (2004), notes were edited
Artwork: © PianoAdventure
Visualization: Synthesia

Видео Ballade No.1 // CHOPIN канала PianoAdventure