Ballade in F minor

The Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 is the fourth and final of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin's ballades for solo piano. It was composed in 1842 in Paris, France and Nohant, France and revised in 1843. The work was dedicated to Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild's wife , who had invited Chopin to play in her Parisian estate, where she introduced him to the aristocracy and nobility. This ballade is considered to be one of the most musically intense a... more

The Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 is the fourth and final of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin's ballades for solo piano. It was composed in 1842 in Paris, France and Nohant, France and revised in 1843. The work was dedicated to Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild's wife , who had invited Chopin to play in her Parisian estate, where she introduced him to the aristocracy and nobility. This ballade is considered to be one of the most musically intense and technically demanding of Chopin's compositions and requires exceptional pianistic ability to be executed accurately. A phrase in the dominant key (marked piano) opens the seven introductory measures and leads into the first subject of sonata-form exposition, a melody with Slavonic coloration. The first subject undergoes four cumulative transformations, inclusive of decorations, intense countermelodies (which lead into the second subject, a lilting chordal passage), counterpoint and a nocturne-like fioritura. The development of the second... less