Octo_Russ

Chopin - 4 Ballades [Tiberghien] 

I think it was inspired to couple the Brahms and Chopin Ballades together, last month i wrote about the Brahms Ballades [5th June 2011], and this month i would like to turn to Chopin's efforts in this genre, unlike Brahms who composed his 4 Ballades early in his life all as one opus number, Chopin composed his over a 7 year period between 1835-1842, never intended as a 'set', apart from his Etudes and Preludes, all of his solo piano music were composed as individual pieces, and yet there's a great unity in these pieces.

Cedric Tiberghien is French, he recorded this disc in 2006, the [photo by Eric Manas] is a really nice pose, and the lettering is clever too.

If you look at the back insert that i scanned, you'll find that the 4 Chopin Ballades are split up as tracks 1-2 & 7-8 hmmm?, i don't see the point of this, but i guess it's only one of access to the music, the two Ballades that i really enjoyed the most were the first and the last, and especially the Ballade 1 was exciting and moving, after a very slow introduction, the main tune appears [0:39+], but it's just not a straightforward piece, it goes all over the place like a Rhapsody, seemingly at first it's a quiet reflective piece, but there's faster and louder outbursts [2:32-3:05], some very nice pianism from Tiberghien, Chopin uses a counter tune to the main tune [3:58-4:19], so perfectly weighted, i love those two separate treble notes [4:10 & 4:13], they are so superb, like a bell chimed twice, and right after Chopin switches to slightly more sour notes [4:19+], and the music builds up to a superb climax of the main theme [5:06-5:38], such passion and feeling from Tiberghien!, the counter theme returns [6:57+], but this time with louder embellishments, and the chiming bells are now louder double notes [7:04 & 7:06], very effective, and just goes to show how Chopin decides to change things for variety and sheer perfection, i love the way he just builds up to things [8:10-8:17], and then just unleashes a superb finale [8:17-9:00], loads of cascading notes, and a sort of false ending to finish with too, it's a real tour de force.

Here's Cedric Tiberghien playing Ballade 1 on YouTube.