Chopin: Ballade 4 -- attacking a summit

When I was studying piano with a piano teacher 25 years ago, we tried on 3rd Ballade and Etudes Op.10-12 & 25-11. After concert performance, we agreed on virtually skipping Chopin as well as Liszt. I studied a lot from my attempts, but they took too much time because I was a slow reader (and still am). I envied my sister enjoying Chopin's Waltz, Etudes, and Impromptus and finishing them in several weeks.

Still Chopin is among my favorite composers. I grew up listening to Stanislav Bunin's "Chopin competition live" CD including Ballade 4 and Scherzo 4. I managed to play Polonaise Fantasie, Scherzo 4, Nocturne Op.15-2 before audience and failed to complete Polonaise Heroique, 3 Mazurkas Op.59, Impromptu Op.51, and any of the Preludes. In most cases my mental energy was drained out even if I solved some of the technical problems (just a matter of fingering). I knew that pianist should change the tone at each modulation, but to me Chopin's numerous modulations appeared unnecessary. Other problems are the unintuitive dynamic markings (hairpins), tempo rubato, and many V->I progressions. "Most performances of Chopin are short of understanding and mine will be another trash. So why suffering about it?" and I left three-month effort behind and stopped playing the piano for a couple of months depressed.

Despite of bitter memories on Chopin, I decided to tackle Ballade 4 as the last chance; Now is the time I play best in the coming years of senility. A technical encouragement is that sometimes Ballade 4 is regarded as a set of variations, which suits my long range passion. It contains many up and downs, but the main theme appears almost always in f-minor key saving time for score reading. Later I found that Ballade 4 is better understood with a sonata form. Usually in sonata form the contrast between the 1st and 2nd themes stands out, but Chopin showed various aspects of the 1st (=main) theme and bridged them so smoothly to the 2nd theme that the contrast is hidden. In other words the 2nd theme follows the "feeling" of 1st theme. In the recapitulation comeback of 2nd theme is appassionato in agreement with the appearance of the 1st theme, but directly after reaching a climax the 2nd theme drops the mask and a fierce conflict comes out. As is well known the coda is destructive and it appears to me that both themes devour each other and nothing remains. One can also assume that the coda of pandemonium is given from outside and destroyed the two proponents (themes).

It took 5 months to play this (although my playing in introduction is still bad...), and the last two months were spent to think about the music. I read several books on Chopin/Ballade/general piano playing and recognized the importance of bassline. Now I found I did wrong with the theme in Alkan -- the bassline was too weak.

Should I have tried Berceuse (strict variations without modulations) instead of Ballade 4 and gone deep in melancholy? I hope you have time to check it out yourself by listening to my recording.

instrument: Steinway B211 score: Ballades for the piano, Alfred masterwork editions edited by W.A. Palmer: good for amateurs for clear fingering & pedaling. (I checked Paderewski edition occasionally) books: "A Challenging Pianist" by I. Kaneko (Japanese) "Chopin's Poetics" by R. Matsuo (Japanese) "The Composers Landscape" by C. Montparker "Chopin" by A. Cortot "Chopin -- Interpreting His Notational Symbols" by S. Bernstein