Piano Forum

I'm not a big fan of those crazy impressive codas as much as the depth and profoundness of the actual pieces, but they're still enjoyable. My favorite codas are: 3-2-4-1

Ballade 3's maintains the original, dance like state in a faster form, making it my favorite of the codas. It's the most consistent, predictable, ballade. And I like how it's fast and fun but not too fast, major key but still dramatic, not over the top.

After that, I like Ballade 2's approach of bringing out the ideas while maintaining the chord progression and nature of the piece. It fits in nicely with the general scope of the piece, and keeps it from being a dull 5 minutes.

Ballade 4's coda, while not as deep as the rest of the piece, comes afterwards. It wraps up the piece quickly and effectively, though I do think that the transition from the long enjoyable droning that came before it does not work the best.

I love all of ballade 1, but the ending is made to impress. All those scale runs, just make me want to finish listening to the piece, despite its attractive motifs throughout the exposition.

If you're wondering, my favorites of the entire pieces are 3-4-1-2. They're all great though, really the pinnacle of chopin. I also wouldn't say there's a single underrated ballade. So far I've heard the interpretations of Krystian Zimmerman, Seong-Jin Cho, Lang Lang, Rubenstein, Goldstein, Prjevalskaya, Traum Piano, and some musescore copies. There's so much more I've got to explore with them I suppose