I'm scaring myself with Chopin's 1st Ballade

[chopinlover01]

So, I have a huge notebook of stuff, and one of the pieces is the G minor ballade by my love Frederic. One day, I sat down at a practice room piano (I was bored and without any other music to play from) and decided to play that from among the music in my notebook (mostly non classical).
I was startled by how naturally it came- while it is by no means an easy piece of music, it seemed to come very naturally under my fingers. On my first run, I read through to the coda, then took a 10 minute break, then read the coda to the end.
Seriously, what am I missing here? I'm a grade 7-8 (ish) pianist, and this is coming naturally... is this actually possible? I've played a lot of Chopin before (several mazurkas, preludes, nocturnes, etc), so if I kept going with the ballade, would I get a rendition that is "appropriate" (for lack of a better word) by classical standard.
Before anyone tells me to go to the audition room, I am currently unable to record for probably the rest of 2014 due to recording equipment failure.

[iansinclair]

Don't be scared -- be happy!  Sometimes a piece of music will just fit right.  Take it and run with it, and make it yours.

Only word of warning -- you will find that as you refine it, it may actually seem to get harder, or worse at times.  Persevere.  You'll get there.

[faa2010]

It is awesome, I wish I could learn easily the Ballade.

Just remember that patience, perseverance, inspiration and finding a reason to play a piece are key parts in order to learn and practice it.

Has this piece inspired you in your life?, why do you want to play it?, how do you want it to sound like?, for who do you play it?

These are internal questions which I hope they can help you in your quest. 

[amytsuda]

That's the magic of Chopin. It sounds so magnificent, first you feel you can never play it. And then, put the score in front of you, you feel it easy, and he trapped you forever. You will spend your life trying to perfect it! 

[chopinlover01]

I was just reading through the coda, and I swear, it never sounded so simple. I feel like I'm missing something, though I know I'm not.
If I finish the Ballade and still feel ballsy I'll go for the second Scherzo.

[amytsuda]

At what tempo, are you going for the coda? I agree the score is quite simple. You will probably find Scherzo No 2 score even easier - there're maybe 8 measures when it transitions back from B to A where you need to pay a bit attention, but that's it. The challenge of Chopin is not about reading scores. It's like Mozart, any one can sight read Mozart sonatas, but it takes years to play them well.

[jlskiles]

The hardest part about this Ballade is trying to get everything to perfection- judges can be EXTREMELY picky about this work. Technique, first of all, has to be perfect, otherwise nothing else with work right. After that you have to make this piece move people, and I don't mean the general public, I mean professionals.

[pianist1025]

Before anyone tells me to go to the audition room, I am currently unable to record for probably the rest of 2014 due to recording equipment failure.

I smell BS

[mjames]

Easy huh...

Come back to us when you have a recording of the entire piece.