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Frédéric Chopin: Ballades
The Ballade or Ballad was originally a sung poem, recounting a myth or an historical event. The form, with its connotations of simple folkloric authenticity, became popular in literature with the rise of Romanticism; Chopin is usually credited with originating the genre for the piano.
The first three Ballades are said to have been inspired by poems by Adam Mickiewicz, a Polish poet living in exile in Paris like Chopin himself, although Chopin never confirmed the precise sources or programs for these works.
Can anyone suggest a place where I can purchase or acquire CD or mp3 (or other PC-based formats) recordings of Peter Frankl playing Chopin's ballades and polonaises?
I purchased these recordings about 20 years ago on cassette tapes. Needless to say, I don't have a tape deck anymore (and even if I did, I listened to the tapes so often that they're damaged by now).
I rarely hear anyone talk about Frankl's performances of these works, but to me they are the best I've ever heard. The piano he's playing has a beautiful warm tone with no tinniness. His playing is brisk and contains the needed technique to execute these pieces, but is not rushed. Perhaps most importantly, he plays the pieces "straight" - without over-exaggerated changes in tempo or dynamics - and lets the music in these masterpieces speak for itself.
I've searched iTunes and Amazon. I've looked in record stores. I've done google searches. All with no results.
Any guidance or suggestions welcome. Thoughts on these recordings are also welcome.
Miena Sanada is a masterclass student of Adolfo Barabino and has done her first recital of the four ballades and Scherzi on an 1895 Bechstein in Unequal Temperament at Emerson College in Sussex UK. Unfortunately the piano was not as well behaved as it had been in the summer . . .
