Chopin Ballade No. 1 in G Minor Benjamin Zander and Vartan Arakelian talk about Chopin's Masterworks

[@reinhildbruchert-arndt3642]

Thank you, Vartan and Maestro Zander. For all my life (74 years now), I thought never to be able to "understand" Chopin or Brahms, but with excellent examples and explanations like in this lesson, I hope to get a bit better in the little rest of my time on earth.

[@gardensare]

No teacher will ever share so much with a student. The recipients are blessed, being touched by this generous man.

[@hansklimstra5987]

Teared up at least four or five times--absolutely amazing the difference from the first attempt!

[@jpdj2715]

I'm always in awe - in love - with maestro Zander and his passion to bring out the passion implied in sheet music. This is another great registration of that passion-play.

[@kozokinartoh4203]

Thank you maestro about your contribution for our world society

[@kursatdagci5274]

Mr. Zender demonstrates the definition of ''passion'' to us all.

[@reeshavpaul522]

After he explained the sotto voce pp part, that gave me goosebumps. So beautiful.

[@jkgou1]

Thank you very much Small details lead to great differences

[@MusicaAngela]

This piece is so beautiful and Ben Zander explains each phrase with sacred reverence.

[@NomeDeArte]

Thank you, best regards from Argentina

[@Dani-zv4rw]

I wish Benjamin had been my piano teacher. ❤

[@niiwii406]

Very well played!

[@samaritan29]

very wholesome

[@RoxanneM-]

His name please. And thank you.

[@NoName-zn1sb]

BEN!! You're gonna give yourself a code!

[@jpdj2715]

Ballade 1 Opus 23 in G minor (1836-06) Dedication to Baron Von Stockhausen (à M. le Baron de Stockhausen) Largo [4/4], Moderato [6/4], Presto con fuoco

[@jpdj2715]

Let's go back to the word "ballade": 1- dance 2- lyrical song 3- epic prose

[@jpdj2715]

As a gross simplification, we could say about Chopin, that he preferred idealised dance forms over the complex architecture of "classical" music - Polonaise, Mazurka, Waltz. ("Classical" here is meant in a narrow sense, of the music/art period just before him.) These dances set the stage for his work. In the Ballades he does his own thing, dancing lyrical song to epic prose, but still dancing.

[@jpdj2715]

It is imperative to have played live music for experienced dancers, when you want to understand "dance" music. Let's not forget that, before Chopin, a lot of worldly music was dance music. There are two things here. The rhythm of the dance must be accentuated and humans in motion have better perception of "time" than brains of sitting musicians. Second, to make live dance music interesting to the dancers, while we can never deviate from the dance's beat, we still can engage in a cat-and-mouse play with the dancers, and they will love it. Every music piece that references a formal dance must have been scrutinised in this sense.

[@jpdj2715]

I would argue that the entire piece should be "danceable", but its storytelling shifts between the lyrical song and epic prose. Epic prose - while dancing, lyrical song - while dancing.

[@jpdj2715]

In this ballade nr. 1, the interwebs say that this would be "the Odyssey of Chopin's soul". That it was inspired by incited by the Lithuanian poems of Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. Mickiewiczmust have been an extraordinary talent for poetic improvisation - that you probably would call a "rapper", today. Or, as student from grammar school, a Homer/Ovid like storyteller where everything is read on a metre, and rhymes. Alexander Pushkin was a friend of Mickiewicz and he met with Hegel and Goethe. I would say that there is an aspect of the German "Sturm und Drang" movement in this piece, still. Musically, there's a waltz-like theme in it. And we could call out the "weird" dissonant E-flat - but this requires us to wonder how Chopin's piano was tuned for the central A pitch, way back, and in what tuning system. What sounds weird on today's Steinway D sounded different -maybe- on Chopin's piano.

[@bw2082]

The meno mosso section is ridiculously slow.