Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Chopin G minor Ballade - thoughts on interpretation

I thought this topic might have been done to death, but didn't see that much in the search results, so I'm going to do it again. Just a general discussion thread.

First of all tempos - after the initial Lento, the marking is Moderato, which stands until the coda - all subsequent markings (eg meno mosso, animato) are relative to that, yet the variations in tempo in interpretations I've heard is enormous. The waltz section is often taken 3 or 4 times faster than the initial theme, which I've never really liked (and not just because I'm envious of people who can play that fast).

Second - Chopin wrote this when he was 21. For all its astounding precocity and harmonic innovation, this is quite an adolescent work - in other words what you see is what you get, and I don't think there's much point underplaying the emotional aspect.

Third - The G melodic minor scales at the end - I've just never pinned down why they are so hard. They're just the scales I did for Grade 8, but faster!

What waltz section?

I think he means the scherzando.

Go to A major bit, carry on past the diminished scale thing, then you've got a bit in Eb marked animato.

Maybe it's only me that even thinks of it as waltzy, which is where I may be going wrong.

They're not if you practice them with a pulse.

Well, it's not even close to a waltz.

It's not generally played as such, because it's almost always done at the maximum possible tempo. But if we take the original 'moderato' and then take 'animato' to not mean 'quadruple the tempo', it sounds a little more danceable.

It is definitely in 2 and not 3.

Two lots of three.

One lot of two.

Two lots of three. It's not a polka, is it?

You've got an oom, then you've got a pah-pah. The fact the the bar-line is drawn after the second recurrance doesn't alter this.

This is where you're wrong. We're talking about Chopin, not a marching band. Perhaps it would make it clearer if it were in 6/8.

It being of course utterly inconceivable that Chopin could ever draw inspiration from any form of vernacular music.

That aside, a waltz has a bass note then two chords in the tenor register. This section has a bass note, then two chords in the tenor register. Add to that the filigree right-hand theme which is reminiscent of many of Chopin's actual waltzes.

To say this section is not, in at least some aspects, 'waltz-like', is being obtuse.

In some aspects. But not in essence.

How do you play it then? I think the point I'm making is that most interpretations are not only not faithful to the score (we are still at a moderato, with an 'animato' noted in italics), but to the feel of the passage, which to me is evident from the left hand.

What do you think the essence is?

The essence is that it is in 2, and felt that way. The filigree RH should sound like just that. Think 25/2.

How fast do you think it should go?

Say 52, or around there. Faster after bar 145.

OK, (assuming you mean dotted minim=50), that's some way more than twice as fast as most pianists would begin the Moderato - is this justified by the 'animato' marking?

I'm just wondering how much of the interpretation of this piece is tradition and how much is from the score. If you take the animato at face value to mean 'moderato animato', then it becomes much more the waltz-like episode I assumed it to be when I first sight-read the work. I don't know of any historical justification for the presto it's normally taken at.

No, I meant 50 to the bar - so I guess it's even worse than you thought.