
Chopin Ballade in G minor
Chopin’s Ballade in G minor was my favorite piece to play. When I play a piece, I try to tell a story with it. The Ballade, split into many, incredibly contrasting sections, provided countless stories to tell. When I first became comfortable with playing the whole piece through by memory, my imagination went wild. One day, it would be a knight dying while saving a princess from her own family. The next day, it would simply be a butterfly with an injured wing in a garden. To me, the Ballade is more an emotional journey than a concrete story, which is what made it so fun to play.
The enjoyment I got from the Ballade only happened after months of practice. For me, learning the piece was a long and difficult process. I would listen to the piece and fall in love, then sit down to practice it and fall off the bench in frustration. Sometimes I would practice until my fingers hurt and still feel like I was making no progress. Some things I learned from it was how to move on from a particular exercise or section if I was not improving, and how to trust myself. Sometimes, concentrating hard on one aspect made it more difficult for me to play a section than if I had simply let it come naturally. For example, sometimes in technical sections, I would only focus on getting the right notes and simply moving my fingers fast enough, and it just would not click for me. Then, I would try to focus more on articulation and wrist flexibility. Everything else would fall into place more easily because I was not overthinking and instead trusted my abilities.
I hope you enjoy my performance of this brilliant piece because I sure enjoyed playing it!
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleHello Annika – What an impressive presentation! I love the “stained glass” in your picture, which seems a visual parallel of the musical gems that flow into one another in this Ballade. I laughed when you described “falling off the bench”, but could totally empathize with that degree of frustration. I’ve fallen off many a bench in my time, but gotten back on to try again. Your advice to other pianists seems… Read more »
Those opening notes are like the introduction to a movie, Annika, and as your performance progressed you had me imagining so many different scenes leading to a wonderful climactic ending. As a writer, I can relate to struggling at a certain point in the process and only by putting that part of my story aside and returning to it later does it all fall into place. A beautiful piece and so skillfully… Read more »
Wow! I am impressed. It was an awesome performance. I really enjoyed it, Annika. Good job. Well played.
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleThis is such an elegant piece. An excellent performance!
What a wonderful presentation, Annika. I was fascinated watching your hands during your performance, they moved across the keys with the grace of a dancer and appeared to be contributing to the story along with the music. Beautiful!
You played the piece so elegantly and the dynamics mixed with the pedal blended so smoothly. Nice job!
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleHi Annika, I enjoyed listening to your interpretation of this beautiful piece! I particularly like your use of staccatos before the main theme to create a sense of tension. Also, this is my favorite piano piece!
Hello again Annika – I’m studying all the presentations again to learn more about recording techniques. Your presentation is so nice – landscape mode and close enough to see your hands plus the beautiful room. Where/how did you place the recording device? Did you use a phone? If so, what kind? Is it set up on a tripod, or something else? Tell us all the tricks you learned about recording so that… Read more »
Bravo Annika for such a stellar performance! I truly experienced the emotional story you were telling through your playing. From the soft blissful opening chords, to the blazing climatic cadenza section, I could feel and experience each note and the story they were telling. I also loved the way your hands glided and danced across the keys. You were very expressive in your playing and it came out in your music. Thank… Read more »
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