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Huneker, James, 1860-1921

"Chopin : the Man and His Music"

Kullak suggests some
variants. He uses the transient shake in the third bar, instead
of the appoggiatura which Klindworth prefers. Klindworth attacks
the trill on the second page with the upper tone--A flat. Kullak
and Mertke, in the Steingraber edition, play the passage in this
manner: [Musical score excerpt from the original version of the
Op. 47. Ballade]
Here is Klindworth:
[Musical score excerpt of the same passage in Klindworth's
edition]
Of the fourth and glorious Ballade in F minor dedicated to
Baronne C. de Rothschild I could write a volume. It is Chopin in
his most reflective, yet lyric mood. Lyrism is the keynote of the
work, a passionate lyrism, with a note of self-absorption,
suppressed feeling--truly Slavic, this shyness!--and a
concentration that is remarkable even for Chopin. The narrative
tone is missing after the first page, a rather moody and
melancholic pondering usurping its place. It is the mood of a man
who examines with morbid, curious insistence the malady that is
devouring his soul. This Ballade is the companion of the
Fantaisie-Polonaise, but as a Ballade "fully worthy of its
sisters," to quote Niecks.


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