de" (in F major), Op. 38. He heard Chopin play it in Leipzig before
its publication, and at that time the passionate middle parts did
not exist, and the piece closed in F major, now it closes in A minor.
Schumann's opinion of this ballade is, that as a work of art it stands
below the first, yet is not less fantastic and geistreich. If two such
wholly dissimilar things can be compared and weighed in this fashion,
Schumann is very likely right; but I rather think they cannot. The
second ballade possesses beauties in no way inferior to those of the
first. What can be finer than the simple strains of the opening section!
They sound as if they had been drawn from the people's storehouse of
song. The entrance of the presto surprises, and seems out of keeping
with what precedes; but what we hear after the return of the tempo
primo--the development of those simple strains, or rather the
cogitations on them--justifies the presence of the presto. The second
appearance of the latter leads to an urging, restless coda in A minor,
which closes in the same key and pianissimo with a few bars of the
simple, serene, now veiled, first strain. The "Troisieme Ballade" (in A
flat major), Op. 47, does not equal its sisters in emotional intensity,
at any rate, not in emotional tumultuousness. On this occasion the
composer shows himself in a fundamentally caressing mood. But the fine
gradations, the iridescence of feeling, mocks at verbal definition.
Insinuation and persuasion cannot be more irresistible, grace and
affection more seductive. Over everything in melody, harmony, and
rhythm, there is suffused a most exquisite elegance. A quiver of
excitement runs through the whole piece. The syncopations, reversions
of accent, silences on accented parts of the bar (sighs and suspended
respiration, felicitously expressed), which occur very frequently in
this ballade, give much charm and piquancy to it. As an example, I may
mention the bewitching subject in F major of the second section. The
appearances of this subject in different keys and in a new guise are
also very effective. Indeed, one cannot but be struck with wonder at the
ease, refinement, and success with which Chopin handles here the form,
while in almost every work in the larger forms we find him floundering
lamentably. It would be foolish and presumptuous to pronounce this or
that one of the ballades the finest; but one may safely say that
the fourth (in F minor), Op. 52, is fully worthy o