A sneak peek of what it may have sounded like at the time Chopin composed his Op. 28 Preludes, this recording is of Polish pianist Ireneusz Jagla playing the A minor prelude on the Pleyel piano the composer used during his time at the island of Mallorca, Spain in 1838-39. The only pieces in the opus which are known to have been composed while there (the rest being completed, revised or otherwise ‘fixed up’) are numbers two, four, ten and twenty one. There is nothing particularly Spanish about these works, though their connection to that island is significant, as they came at a time when Chopin’s health was failing almost irreversibly. Despite that, he finished some of his best known works then, including the preludes, his famed B-flat minor sonata, and the lilting (at the beginning) F major Ballade, among other pieces.  

Before the day closes, I would be remiss if I didn’t write a short post on the birthday of Chopin, who today would have been 202.

A master of orchestration in a completely different sense than orchestral composers, Chopin changed the piano, gave it a sensibility it had up to his lifetime not known. It became an orchestra in the hand of one, rather than Mahler’s hundred. No composer, save perhaps Liszt, explored the sonic possibility and color more than the Polish master, and none has ever dedicated themselves to one instrument so strictly. Why this is does not matter, but it remains that the world is better for it. Excuse my bias. Bon anniversaire, Chopin. 

It’s been some time since Chopin appeared here…

He could well be the greatest composer at the piano ever to have lived. Perhaps he was not the most prolific (though, he was certainly no slouch) and did not write the most bombastic music. But no composer before or since has been able to revolutionize his signature instrument so—Debussy came close, as did Cage, if we are inclusive, but not as effectively as Chopin. He brought something new out of the piano, changing it from simply a solo instrument to an orchestra in a box around a sound board. This is not even to mention the composer’s innovations in tonal extension and chromatic expansion.

This recording is of Martha Argerich, playing one of the composer’s most famous works, the G minor Ballade, Op. 23. The opening Neapolitan deceives the ear, initially, but introduces the work in a emotional yet sensitive manner. Argerich’s interpretation of this opening is, perhaps literally, breath-taking.

Spotify, Evgeny Kissin, my pick for the master of overall interpretation on this work.

Brahms’s tenth opus includes four relatively short works entitled “Ballades”, in third-related keys, D minor and major and B minor and major. This video is a recording of the first piece played by Emil Gilels. The first Ballade was inspired by a selection from a collection by Herder entitled “Edward”, an evocation of Scottish lyricism. A shallow listen brings the snap rhythm so associated with Scotland, calling to mind the abrupt ornamentation of a bagpipe.