Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Two months to learn Chopin's 4th Ballade

Yes, but it turned out okay. Adrenaline is wonderful thing sometimes.

I've had it turn out lots of ways. From triumphant to disastrous and everything in between.

Ever just changed the program?

And, how awful anyway is it to 'change the program'? I agree with Debrucey that we want to try to avoid it -- but not at all costs.

Harder than the third sonata?

I know a couple of people who learned it in that general time frame. Both gave solid performances. One of them continued working on it and about two months later gave a "terrific" performance.

Well, the main thing was whether the Ballade is clearly among the most challenging.

But as long as you're asking.... I performed both for the first time at the same recital, and FWIW I had been working on the sonata for a year....and the ballade for 7 years. The difficulties are different, and different people would find one or the other to be harder. It's hard even to say what's the hardest thing about the sonata. Most people think it's the last movement, many say it's the 1st....and to me the scherzo is the hardest movement.

I'd say it would be splitting hairs to say if the sonata or the ballade is harder. They're both clearly "among Chopin's most challenging works."

BTW I wouldn't recommend performing the sonata either after just 2 months.

IMO there are plenty of Chopin pieces at the same level of difficulty as the 4th Ballade or so close as to make any difference unimportant.

Yeah.. I don't know if the OP is playing it very safe. I would never perform any large work at two months of practice.

Obviously I'm not playing it safe :P

I didn't expect to have to clarify this point, but by 'learned' the coda all I mean is a can sit down and play the coda with a reasonable amount of fluency (if a little undertempo) from memory.

The reason this is an important thing for me is because getting a piece to that stage is the thing I stress about the most. Once the notes are 'learned' all of the work that then must happen to make it a polished performance, while it will certainly take a long time, doesn't frighten me.

'Considered by all' ?
A lot of pianists I know have told me that they don't consider it to be as difficult as people think, so clearly opinion is divided on that one.

In an ideal world we would all 'own' every piece we learn before we play it to anyone, but I personally have very rarely experienced such a situation.

Yes. Some years ago, after a violinist and horn player had a nasty falling out with a pianist, they asked me to play the piano part in the Brahms Horn Trio with two months to go before a scheduled performance.

I said, 'yes, of course!'

If I knew the piece from recordings, that didn't quite prepare me for how difficult that piano part actually is. (If not on the level of the Chopin.) The first rehearsal did not go well and I spent the last month in a dead heat working overtime.

In the event all went okay, though don't let anyone tell you that the Horn Trio is in any way an easy gig.

(Good luck with the Chopin, debrucey.)

Nothing like a deadline to fire up your practicing! If you play Chopin anything like you play Rachmaninoff, you'll do just fine, debrucey. We believe in you!

If his past history here is any indication, I do not feel there is any to worry about.

I know I'm coming in a little late to this. I would suggest that playing something poorly would be less professional than dropping the piece.

That said, I don't think this is impossible to learn in two months. I hear you are proficient at Rachmaninoff, though I have never had the pleasure of hearing you play any. I learned Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto in 2 months. Bottom line: you can do this.

When push comes to shove, you can do so many things.. as you'll discover, haha =) good luck!

Fine -- but yes, "long time" -- which I would have thought could mean a lot more than 2 months.


IMO they're just wrong.
Sorry.

And BTW my guess would be that "a lot" is a bit of hyperbole. You sure you don't mean just 1 or 2 people that you happened to have come across? (Because I'm very, very confident that it's an extreme minority view. Unless y'all are talking about playing it not necessarily very well, or quite superficially, in which case just about anything isn't that hard.)

Anyway....obviously you're quite determined to press on with the Ballade. Good luck -- maybe you can pull it off quite well; a lot of people here seem to think you can. But from how you presented it in the original post, IMO it sounds way too iffy.

Good Luck! I've been in several situations like this and they all seem to turn out better than I had hoped. Although there were 1 or 2 that I'd rather not remember....

Good luck with your recital, Debrucey! Your YouTube recordings are terrific, and I am sure you can do an excellent job with the 4th ballade. You are shooting for a very ambitious deadline, though.




My recommendation would be to continue making your best effort at learning Chopin's 4th ballade for the November recital. As a safety measure, determine the latest point (e.g. early November?) when it would still be feasible to change the program without too much negative fallout. Have a back-up piece that you already play well (perhaps another comparable work by Chopin such as another ballade, scherzo, Fantaisie in F minor, Polonaise-Fantasie, etc). in good shape in case the 4th ballade does not go as well as hoped. A few days before the deadline, make your best judgement on whether to play the 4th ballade or the other piece. You can play both pieces in front of other pianists whose views you trust to get feedback to help you make your decision.

Would it be feasible to do something like this?

Nope, I have no such piece. The recital is 50 minutes long and uses up everything I have at the moment. If I were to change it for something comparable I would be in the same situation as I would still have to learn a new piece.

If I may dare propose something: Why does all the pieces have to be AMAZING and MONUMENTALLY stunning, difficult and contain the WOW factor? Just got for a couple of easier works. Not everything has to be at the standard of a Chopin Ballad I think...

True. A set of nocturnes, waltzes, or mazurkas would be really nice to listen to.