Chopin Ballade in F Major, Op. 38

[jlh]

I flubbed at the end...  don't know exactly what happened, but I suspect fatigue.  I've performed this other times and made it through the coda with no problems, but it got the best of me this time.  I guess this is what I get for playing the Prokofiev Toccata in the same recital right before this... 

This is also from my senior recital in 2005.

Comments/suggestions always welcome!

Josh

[quasimodo]

My favorite ballade!!!!
The treatment of the Presto Con fuoco parts is awesome!
But the soft parts 5introduction theme and its reprise), I find to slow and heavy. Just a matter of taste obviously.
You're a superb pianist.

[moi69]

How old are u, Josh?

[jlh]

How old are u, Josh?

23 for this recording...

[counterpoint]

The slow parts of the Ballade are really wonderful, I don't think, they are too slow at all.

The "Presto con fuoco" doesn't mean, in my opinion, to play "as fast as you can", but to play being "in pressure", "in a hurry", "very excited". I would take much more time for the first sixteenth in bar 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Presto con fuoco and then make a real accellerando until the end of the each bar. You get much more of that "power feeling", when you play this way.

[happyscottyboy]

I really like this. Superb performance - it's so long! Go Josh! 

[teresa_b]

That is wonderful!    I really enjoyed your playing--very nice in the soft areas and energetic and passionate in the "presto" passages!  These ballades are so difficult, a little flub in the coda is, in my opinion, nothing to worry about.  (I'm still trying to get the best of the coda of the G minor ballade, and I haven't won yet.  )

GREAT!
Teresa

[buebo]

One of my favorite pieces!
And you did it wonderfully! It's a bit slower than the recording I have but all the feelings are wonderfully conveyed so that doesn't matter a bit.

Cheers 

[joemon]

  They played this Ballade on the movie The Pianist. It sounds really good. You have the notes down, but in the movie they played it alot faster. It might sound just a tiny better if you sped it up! Good Luck!

              Joe 

[jlh]

  They played this Ballade on the movie The Pianist. It sounds really good. You have the notes down, but in the movie they played it alot faster. It might sound just a tiny better if you sped it up! Good Luck!

              Joe 

I need to play it faster because in a movie they played it faster?  Really?