Picking a Chopin piece. Suggestions?

[ekirth]

I recently got some new music (post-exams!)...and I've got to pick a Chopin piece. The choices are among the Chopin ballades (no. 1 or 2 or 4), and the heroic polonaise. Needless to say, I'm very excited.

I've just begun to learn Liszt's La Campanella (first Liszt piece  ). I've played some Chopin etudes (op. 10 n. 5 and op. 25 n. 1), a polonaise, etc. before, as well as Schumann's Papillons, a couple of Rach preludes, some of the Beethoven sonatas, and a Bach English suite. (Hopefully that gives a vague idea of technical level...)

So, the question is: if you had to pick between Chopin's ballade no. 1, no. 2, no. 4, and the heroic polonaise, which would you pick? Why? If you can, disregard the "overplayed" factor. 

Thanks for your help!

[lazlo]

why not listen to these pieces and choose which one you like best...

[thaicheow]

why not listen to these pieces and choose which one you like best...

I agree. By the way, I wonder how much time you get to prepare the stuff? If for me, I would definitely avoid Ballade no 4 and Polanaise Heroic. They are lovely, but too difficult, at least to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSEwfqs-VM

[soliloquy]

Ballade No. 2


Have you looked at the Barcarolle Op. 60 and the Scherzo No. 4 though?  I think both of those are better than any of the Balladen.  There's also the Fantasy Op. 49 to look at.

[prongated]

...very exciting!
...so I agree with lazlo...

IMO, I think technical difficulty shouldn't affect ekirth's choice here...in any case, I don't know if it's been threaded before, but I think in terms of overall difficulty:

4 > 1 > 2

Ballade 2 is very beautiful when played musically, Ballade 1 is tricky to bring out well in a performance, and Ballade 4 requires more maturity than the others here. I don't recommend the Polonaise because I think there are better ones that you can learn...

I'd choose Ballade 1 because I think it's a good learning curve in a way...how you can interpret with structural coherence. That's what I (eventually!) worked out anyway...

[ekirth]

I've heard all of them...Problem is, I like all of them.  I guess I was just curious as to their popularity here.

re soliloquy: I haven't looked at them--I'm really just picking from these four. I'll put those down for later reference, though. Thanks for the suggestions!

re thaicheow: I'm assuming that I've got plenty of time to work on it--I'm not learning this specifically for an audition or anything.

re prongated: Thanks for the notes .

Anyhow, thanks for the advice and such, though I still haven't decided.

[hodi]

polonaise op.44 f# minor
very beautiful (difficult too

[kriskicksass]

There's quite a big difference between the ballades and the polonaise in terms of how useful they are for your repertoire. Any of the ballades can be a centerpiece on a recital program, while the polonaise is a great finale or encore. Any of those pieces would be great for an audition, but you said that that's not a concern.

Personally, I would go for the polonaise, but that's because I have no use for big pieces in my rep right now. After that I would go for the ballades in the order 2 > 1 > 4.

[elevateme_returns]

why not do ballade 1. in my opinion thats the best of the four. no 4 might be a bit tricky for you at this time, its hard to tell just from a rep list.

but i would go with ballade 1. amazing piece when you've learnt it.

[tradge]

I quite like Ballade 3, when played well, its absolutely gorgeous!

[elevateme_returns]

tradge mate... thats not on the list. lol

[franzliszt2]

I quite like Ballade 3, when played well, its absolutely gorgeous!

I take it Simon showed u my recording  lol 

[ramseytheii]

I quite like Ballade 3, when played well, its absolutely gorgeous!

Seconded!

Walter Ramsey

[ihatepop]

I recommand the Ballade No1. Its easier than the No4, which might be too advanced for you now (I far behind you). And most importantly, it sounds beautiful. Anyone could like it.

The most important point in picking a piece to learn is wheather you like the piece or not.

ihatepop

[cloches_de_geneve]

Not Nr. 1, EVERYONE is playing Ballade one, you are going to be immediately compared with the best performances, listeners will tend to be critical no matter how you play it. The same actually applies to Ballade 3.

In contrast, Nr. 2 is played much less and it is a fantastic piece with its combination of tranquil lyricism and abrupt explosions. I would pick No. 2.

[Nightscape]

Only play Ballade 1 if you know it by heart and love it, are familiar with the best recordings and videos of it, and even then only and only if you can sightread 95% of it hands separately with no technical problems.  If you are going to be playing this for people and not for yourself, you need it to be nearly perfect otherwise there is no point since there are literally hundreds if not thousands of pianists capable of giving a satisfactory performance of this.  That's a lot to live up to!

It is an audience favorite, and by all means learn it for yourself if for anyone.  It is one of Chopin's most successful compositions and the amount of musical pleasure it will give you is astounding compared to the amount of work it requires to learn it.

Be warned about playing it for other pianists or judges.  It will be impossible to make the majority of them happy even with a technically flawless performance.  There are so many widely divergent views on the interpretation of the piece that it can be a very stressful experience.  Just go to youtube and look at the comments of the Horowitz and Zimmerman recordings posted there to see what I mean.

[franzliszt2]

The ballades are soo musical you can do anything with them to a certain degree. Working on any of them opens about a million doors. Don't worry about sounding like others, if you start to think you have to sound different you'll sound like everyone and sound the same. If you get my point...(by trying to be different you'll end up being the same) just do what you feel is best with them. Technical problems can be solved.

[ekirth]

Thanks for all of the feedback--I'd no idea that no. 1 was so popular, or that no. 4 was that difficult (I tend to just sight-play the first couple of pages to get an idea, but after looking at the rest of it today... ).

I've been going back and forth between ballade no. 1 and no. 2--I love both. I think that no. 4 is a bit too much technically, especially considering that I'm learning La Campanella at the same time. I've already played a polonaise before and ought to try something a bit different, perhaps, because this next year will be my last year before going off to college and I don't know if I'd be able to take lessons in college or not.

Well, thanks again. 

p.s. I did take a look at the polonaise in f# minor, and it is gorgeous.

[ihatepop]

No problem. I'm sure everyone here on pianostreet is willing to help.

Good luck with your pieces!

ihatepop

[themongru]

why not do ballade 1. in my opinion thats the best of the four. no 4 might be a bit tricky for you at this time, its hard to tell just from a rep list.

but i would go with ballade 1. amazing piece when you've learnt it.

i reckon that no.1 is the best personally. 

[eddie54]

i've performed all the ballades.....so here's my take.....the easiest one is 3, and perhaps the one that keeps the most delicate melody throught.....I think 2 and 1 each have their difficulties for technique.....2 is much shorter, and very nice....1 is the most played since of the drama and melodies it has.....4 is considered the ballade you play after you've been through quite a bit in life, haha.....imo, 2 would be th best to start with since it's pretty straightforward and sounds amazingly hard, even though it isn't.....

other chopin pieces dear to my heart are of course the barcarolle in F#major,  and scherzo no 2 in b-flat minor (crowd always loves this)....only downside for me about playing the heroic polonaise, is that everyboday plays this piece, and for me it doesn't encompass the polonaise feel that the F#minor one does.....that's just me.....have you heard the andante spiniato and grande polonaise?