Ballade No. 1 in G minor Op. 23 - Frederick Chopin

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This is my favorite piece. Ever. And it's April...

As this channel has grown, I’ve become increasingly apprehensive to post music because I feel like I never live up to the standard I set for myself. And especially for a piece like this, it’s just nerve-wracking thinking about the critical reception I’m about to receive. Well, here goes.

I first learned and performed this piece in 8th grade (PLAYING BALLADE IN G MINOR 13 YRS OLD jkjkjk). Of course, I didn’t know how insanely popular the piece is at the time, but I still remember feeling a bit of accomplishment at having learned the piece. Of course, it took a lot of time because I was also working on a Beethoven Concerto at the time, and so the performance that I gave that studio recital wasn’t the greatest thing ever. But it’s still cool to go back and listen to it every once in a while to hear how much I’ve grown as a musician.

A few months after the studio recital, I had two private masterclasses, one with a then Masters student now Professor Clement Acevedo, and one with the pianist/conductor Vladimir Stoupel (). And they literally changed the way I viewed music.

Up until then of course I had been developing my ear and technique. I knew how to use dynamics in Beethoven, how to use some arm weight, how to pedal and phrase and all that, but the purpose behind them wasn’t something that I had truly considered. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed playing the piano because it was fun, but I didn’t love it or find a significantly deeper purpose behind it.

I remember showing up for the lesson with Mr. Stoupel where we went through both Beethoven’s 3rd Concerto and the Ballade. I’ve had masterclasses with him since I was 10 or so since he’s my piano teacher’s son-in-law, so I was somewhat used to his intensity, but I remember this day him being particularly displeased with my playing.

We moved on from the Concerto to the Ballade, and we didn’t even get to the Scherzo section in the middle. But I remember much of the discussion revolving around the character and story of the piece in a way that I had never thought about before.

What is this section saying? What are you feeling when you play this? These were very nebulous to me at the time and I didn’t understand how they could be expressed in a sound produced by a hammer striking a key. But then we got to measure 106 and that massive fortissimo section.

I thought I knew how to play a fortissimo. I thought I knew what it meant to drive weight into the keys to make a heavy tone.

“No, put your weight into the keys!”

This is probably the most vivid memory I have from any lesson or masterclass. Mr. Stoupel get up, walked behind me, put his hands into my shoulders, and pushed down heavily as he said that. I remember the feeling of being driven into the seat, and suddenly I got it. I drove my weight into the keys in that fortissimo section and it was the first time that I had ever had the feeling of being able to almost lift my body off the bench simply with my hands on the keyboard. And suddenly for the first time I understood how the notes could ring with more than just a rote dynamic or pitch, but how a deep-seated emotion could somehow meld into it as well.

The masterclass with Dr. Acevedo then helped gel all this together. In that lesson we worked through the whole Ballade, but with much more emphasis on phrasing. But also in that lesson, he pointed out each section, where you could almost close your eyes and hear a narrator speaking, where certain feelings and emotions could interject, and how the melody can be played to express that.

The thing that clicked that lesson was his discussion on phrasing the first section with the theme. He showed me how each phrase could have its own direction distinct from the others by simply changing which note you played towards. You can play towards the last note, making the phrase drive there. You can play the whole thing in the same dynamic or tempo, giving it a still, subdued feeling. You can play to a note in the center of the phrase, creating a sense of tension then relief.

And suddenly I could hear the storyteller’s voice in each phrase, in each note. And suddenly I realized that the storyteller was me.

Suddenly a world of possibilities opened up before. Suddenly music was no longer just music; it was an art. It was storytelling. It was communication.

It was beautiful.

I’m happy that I get to share this with all of you, and I hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time,
- Watt

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