In Chopin’s time, the poetic ballad was synonymous with Romanticism and inspired the imagination of many composers. They set ballad texts to music primarily in the form of songs, leaving remarkable examples of musical responses to their narrative content and emotional atmosphere. It was Chopin, however, who first transposed the qualities of the poetic ballad into the medium of purely instrumental piano music. His four ballades established a distinct musical genre that became a model for other composers.
Adam Golka’s recital – an American pianist of Polish heritage – entitled ‘Tales at the Piano’, takes us into the world of the Romantic piano ballade. It opens with Robert Schumann’s Schön Hedwig, Op. 106, an intriguing combination of the recitation of Friedrich Hebbel’s poetic text with piano accompaniment – or rather, piano illustration.
The programme also revisits Clara Schumann’s Ballade in D minor from Soirées musicales, Op. 6: a work written when the composer was just 16, and a testament to her talent and sensitivity. We will also hear Johannes Brahms’s four Ballades, Op. 10, composed in 1854. The first of the set follows a somewhat different path from Chopin’s model, referring directly to its source of inspiration, the Scottish folk poem ‘Edward’.
The recital also includes Juliusz Zarębski’s Ballade in G minor, the only ballade in his surviving output, as well as a work by Frederic Rzewski, an American composer who continued to write piano ballades in the 20th century. The recital concludes with works by Fryderyk Chopin: the dramatic Ballade in F major, Op. 38, dedicated to Robert Schumann, and the more serene Ballade in A flat major, Op. 47.