The twin peaks of the Romantic ballade. The Romantics favoured autonomous pianistic genres midway between the aphoristic style of the prelude and the vast expanses of the sonata or fantasia. One of these was the ballade, the musical equivalent of the short story or novella. This recording sets the four Ballades of Chopin, a coherent but divisible entity, against the four Balladen op.10 of Brahms, which form what might be described as a ‘ballade sonata’, composed in a single burst of creativity. This title was released for the first time in 2006.
FREDERIC CHOPIN [1810-1849] · Ballade n°1 op.23 en sol mineur / G minor / g-moll. Largo andantino (9'38) · Ballade n°2 op.38 en Fa majeur / F major / F-dur. Andantino (7'02) JOHANNES BRAHMS [1833-1897] Ballades op.10 · N°1. Andante (4'28) · N°2. Andante (6'43) · N°3. Intermezzo (4'08) · N°4. Andante con moto (9'01) FREDERIC CHOPIN [1810-1849] · Ballade n°3 op.47 en La bémol majeur / A flat major / As-dur. Allegretto (7'09) · Ballade n°4 op.52 en fa mineur / F minor / f-moll. Andante con moto (11'42)
