I thought you were insinuating something to do with erections lol.

If debrucey spends as much times as you do overanalysing everything he definitely won't finish the Ballade. He might not even make it through breakfast before it's time for dinner. Fortunately, I don't think he has this problem.

Debrucey is a serious conservatory student. The idea that he doesn't have proper respect for any composer or any piece of music is quite silly, I think. He's decided to devote his life to this pursuit. Even if, for the sake of argument, debrucey is not showing proper respect for this piece the idea that someone should be personally offended by that is very silly.

I wished I would have followed this thread since its genesis. It's always been rather interesting for me to watch other people's progress on repertoire. I would say you will be fine. The 4th Ballade is really captivating, but not nearly as hard as it sounds, IMHO. Now, I just wish I could thin down my required repertoire for college to one ballade for two months. As of now, I'm expected to have perfected Les Adieux, the Grieg Concerto, Schubert D.935, and Ginastera's first sonata by December. Good fortunes and happy practicing!!

Donald Lee

[ohgodwhy]

Debrucey, I'm in a similar [although much less serious] situation - I've been spending to much time polishing my Beethoven Sonata that I've completely ignored learning parts of it....and my teacher told me two days ago to have the whole thing memorized and relatively playable by our next lesson [Monday]. I'm not prepping for any performance right now but I can definitely feel the strain of having to fly through the learning process...but it's actually boosting my confidence a lot because I'm figuring out I can learn music pretty dang quick if I need to!

I just posted a video of my progress in the member recordings section if anybody is interested in how I am managing so far lol

^ couldn't find the video in member recordings.. can you post a link? thx

He means the sub-forum of the Pianist Corner, not the other members recording forum.
Well done for such a short time frame, by the way!

Impressive...and in such a short amount of time. Congratulations!

To continue with the mad thread-bumping...I also did some bad planning and will be performing this Ballade in a few days...and I gave myself too little time to prepare in the same vein .

Speaking of which (for this ballade), I realized that the first theme that the left hand plays - the descending scale - becomes the counterpoint in the polyphonic section, and is also used as other transition material throughout the rest of the piece. I wasn't aware of how tightly this piece was constructed until recently..

What's this vein stuff?

What about "There is a change in the program...."

BTW, nice other observation.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/in_the_same_vein ??

No change in program, the show must go on! :P

A show doesn't depend on playing what we're not ready to play.

I guess not for Kuanpiano, but for me, yes it does, since it's a degree recital and my rep is already set and submitted... Lol

My reference book says of this work

“Loveliest of all is the Ballade in F minor Opus 52.
“It’s witchery is irresistible” says Huneker.
The motives of the first theme recur so often, especially (a) that the inflection must be artfully varied to avoid monotony. Just how these nuances should be applied —
for instance, whether the repetition of (a) should be fainter or stronger in any particular place — can hardly be determined beforehand; a good pianist had best trust the inspiration of the moment to give it the right flexibility to his performance.

This will accord with the extremely intuitive character of the piece, which is a whole from a form that on the surface seems disjointed.
It is advisable to start with coda (immediately after the five long pianissimo chords) quite moderately in time and force, increasing the speed when you feel safe.
An accelerando of this kind is easy and effective, whereas it is humiliating and ineffective to begin at top speed and be obliged to slacken. A broadening of tempo should always sound intentional, never as if forced by technical difficulty.”

My own take relates to the first tricky 13 measures
(but happily going at an easy Andante con moto gait)... where the ever-inventive Chopin develops a sort of syncopated treble rhythm ... by lacing in an “inner voice” to his broad octave chordal theme ...
once you get over this finger-busting passage, the going gets easier.

The opening comment ... “It’s witchery is irresistible” should arm the pianist to beard the lion in his den .

PS Lions are flesh-eating ... however Androcles plucked a thorn from the paw of a lion so they say ...
which helped him to outlive the munching of wild beasts in the Colosseum ... but then, I wasn't around at the time to confirm.

Same.

Oh.

I think it's an unfortunate rule.
And if it was me, in such a situation I would have tried to get an exception. But in any event, if you had said so we wouldn't have been suggesting so hard that you might change it.

If you did say it and I kept saying "change it" anyway, I apologize.

(I know you said it had been submitted, but didn't notice you saying it was anything like you "had to" go with that.)

Not a degree recital, but same in every other aspect :P

I hadn't submitted it then, but I have now.
Everything this year is leading towards my final recital. As hard as it was learning the Chopin in 2 months, I'm glad I forced myself to do it because I am now better prepared for my final recital than I would be had I taken the easy option and learned or relearned something else.