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I borrowed a CD from the library recently of "French Music for Piano and Orchestra" that includes the Fauré Ballade Op. 19. An exquisite piece! However, I was fairly certain that I'd heard an arrangement of it for solo piano previously. Am I imagining things??

No you're not. There is an arrangement for solo piano, and I think the latest recording of it is by Naida Cole.

It's published by Theodore Presser, or more likely distributed by them (French import). I think you can order direct from them at http://www.presser.com

This thread had prompted me to pull out that Naida Cole recording for some early morning listening. Sublime in many respects.

Thanks everyone! Have any of you ever played the piece? Is the orchestal version very different from the solo, and how would you rate it in difficulty?

Difficulty? Never tried it myself so can't comment personally, but the following is from the liner notes of Fauré – The Complete Music for Piano as performed by Kathryn Stott (which BTW I highly recommend if you're looking for a collection of Fauré's piano output):

It was Liszt who found the Ballade pour piano seul "too difficult", referring to the version for solo piano before its transformation in a more popular and lucid version for piano and orchestra. Presumably he meant that the writing was intricate without being virtuosic, that the material was too fragile and exquisite for public consumption. Even Liszt, a dazzlingly perceptive and generous critic, must have been baffled by the presence of so many difficulties in a piece unlikely to win prolonged plaudits. Meanwhile Debussy's dismissal of the Ballade as 'about as erotic as a woman's loose shoulder-strap' says more about his own insecurity than about one of Fauré's most charming pieces: a reminder of halcyon, half-remembered summer days and bird-haunted forests.

It is DIFFICULT! You have to be an advanced pianist to play it even badly. But so very beautiful and much fun. That French import score mentioned in an earlier post is full of mistakes though.

Pepper,

How do you know the French import has mistakes? (you need to back that up a bit, as there may be authoritative revisions by Faure, and the differences would then not be "mistakes")

Or let me rephrase. . .

Which scores do you have, which would you recommend?

I'd be interested as well, since I'd like to find the best source.

Sorry,rvaga, for being so unclear. The errors which I found are merely "typos" - incorrect or missing accidentals mostly (not surprising, I suppose, since parts are written in e flat minor while retaining the key sig of F# major--lotsa accidentals there). The only edition I am aware of is published by Editions Hamelle, distributed by Alfonse Leduc, both of Paris, although I seem to remember I got it through Presser.