Chopin Ballade op. 23 G minor

[thesixthsensemusic]

Just finished another recording. The piece itself needs no further explanation I presume. The work was learned from Alfred Cortot's edition which I own, but I used the Peters' edition from IMSLP for cross-reference (and I did follow it in a few instances where Cortot's got a slightly different notation)
For those among you who prefer to hear it on SoundCloud instead, here's the link;

https://soundcloud.com/sixthsensedj/fr-d-ric-chopin-ballade-g-moll

I do hope you enjoy it, any feedback is highly appreciated

[jollisg]

Hi! I have studied this piece (and am still doing, i don't think one can ever 'finish' a piece, persay). I have some thoughts/advice (they will be in chronlogical order). I hear that the piece is still in progress, so many things you might have thought of already:

In the beginning, in the largo section, i feel that something is missing. A bit more pedal and legato would lift it. I think you need a bit more direction.

When the moderato section begins, i think you need to tone down the left hand. Otherwise it will sound heavy. Practice The melody line and make that beautiful.

A bit forward, after the "roulade" in the right hand, at the "a tempo": is it only me, or does your right hand continously come after the left hand? It sounds kind of strange to me.

After that, in the faster part, don't stress! It's more important to play expressive than fast.

In the lyrical section, you go out of rythm quite a lot. Of course It's ok to do it a little, but i don't think one should shange the length value of the notes completely.

In The scherzo section, you could work on the pedalling and phrasing of the left hand.

The coda is a beast, don't you think? I struggeled so much with it! Rythmizing is a really good thing to do. Do it over "edges" as well. If you focus more on The musicality, it will feel easier.

I can write more tips when i have a computer accessable (i am writing From a iPhone). My tips now were kind of sloppy and just pointing out stuff...
Great job with this wonderful piece!

[the89thkey]

Promising.

---but---

Practice.

[thesixthsensemusic]

Hi! I have studied this piece (and am still doing, i don't think one can ever 'finish' a piece, persay). I have some thoughts/advice (they will be in chronlogical order). I hear that the piece is still in progress, so many things you might have thought of already:

In the beginning, in the largo section, i feel that something is missing. A bit more pedal and legato would lift it. I think you need a bit more direction.

When the moderato section begins, i think you need to tone down the left hand. Otherwise it will sound heavy. Practice The melody line and make that beautiful.

A bit forward, after the "roulade" in the right hand, at the "a tempo": is it only me, or does your right hand continously come after the left hand? It sounds kind of strange to me.

After that, in the faster part, don't stress! It's more important to play expressive than fast.

In the lyrical section, you go out of rythm quite a lot. Of course It's ok to do it a little, but i don't think one should shange the length value of the notes completely.

In The scherzo section, you could work on the pedalling and phrasing of the left hand.

The coda is a beast, don't you think? I struggeled so much with it! Rythmizing is a really good thing to do. Do it over "edges" as well. If you focus more on The musicality, it will feel easier.

I can write more tips when i have a computer accessable (i am writing From a iPhone). My tips now were kind of sloppy and just pointing out stuff...
Great job with this wonderful piece!

Thanks for the valuable feedback. I agree with most of it, and your observation regarding the left and right hand not hitting simultaneously in the a tempo section is correct, but I did that on purpose. The idea was to enhance the 'articulation' by emulation consonant sounds in the human voice. The same reason I played one of the last chords of the piece as broken whereas it's written down as a regular chord.

It's a trick I use to sort of emulate the idea of bel canto opera singing, which was one of the traditions that Chopin took a lot of inspiration from, and is often used as a metaphor for his own style, by musicologists and critics alike. I noticed lots of pianists, especially in the past, do similar things, and came across information about it in various articles and interviews I found. Being somewhat obsessed with details I thought it would be a good idea to try and master this free way of playing myself.

However, it's something I never consciously did before, so I am still experimenting with how I can get it to work. Obviously, as you found it strange, it's probably something I haven't quite got the grasp of yet.

You're right, the coda is difficult, especially the repeat of the last section where the left hand moves to playing octaves instead of single bassline notes. The trick is, something which I am still working on, to coordinate left hand movement while only looking at the thumb of the octaves so you can simultaneously mind what the other hand's doing (especially since there's some nasty pivotal movements). I am now at the point I can work my way through it in decent speed, albeit with a few missed or wrong notes in between. Slow practice will hopefully sort that out in a week or so...

All in all, it is a work in progress indeed, I play all hard parts of the piece through slowly a few times a day apart from new repertoire I'm currently learning, and whenever I feel like it I play through the entire piece in order to get it sounding as musical as possible. Thanks for listening and sharing your thoughts! BTW, I am curious how your own rendition sounds, I thought I saw the thread down here somewhere but apparently I took you for someone else who posted the piece too...

[thesixthsensemusic]

Promising.

---but---

Practice.

I know... even though monumental pieces like this are never 'finished', apart from that there's still plenty of weak points to improve upon here