Chopin’s extraordinary Ballade No.1 seems to inspire serious students of the piano, whether dedicated hobbyists or aspirant professionals, like no other single piano work. Its role at a pivotal moment in Roman Polanski’s 2002 film The Pianist has doubtless contributed to its celebrated status. More recently the sense of Zeitgeist around this masterpiece has been further enhanced by former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger’s book in which he outlines his endeavours to learn the piece against all the odds (Play It again: An Amateur Against the Impossible).

This article assesses the main recordings of the work available on YouTube, with the aim of helping you locate the most compelling performances. Given the range of richly rewarding interpretations on offer, from widely divergent artistic personalities, it’s clear that this piece of music truly inspires many of the world’s greatest pianists too. They are in good company: Chopin apparently told Schumann that this Ballade was his favourite among his own works.

Maurizio Pollini

Having long occupied an exalted place amongst interpreters of this work, Pollini is well represented on YouTube, mainly in recordings taken from ‘live’ performances. If Pollini is at his best when he combines his commanding brilliance with a sense of space and a willingness to yield to the more lyrical impulses of the music, one of these recordings is pre-eminent. This is indeed a magisterial account: granitic, turbulent when the music demands, but also with an enchanting sense of reverie in the second subject, truly faithful to Chopin’s sotto voce marking. Throughout the work Pollini’s phrasing comes in long, organic paragraphs, contributing to an inexorable sense of the work’s overall architecture.

Sviatoslav Richter

Richter is also well-served on YouTube, mostly via recordings of various concerts from the 1960’s. Richter’s interpretation remains fairly consistent across these performances. His introduction is restrained rather than consciously arresting, and leads to a subdued main theme, cowed with sorrow. In the midst of such a weighty reading, his rather insouciant way with the second limb of the second subject in the recapitulation (from bar 180) is rather quirky – hardly the con forza stipulated by the composer. But in general Richter is fully responsive to the unfolding drama, and the denouement is suitably demonic.

Vladimir Horowitz

Much less consistent are the various YouTube versions of Vladimir Horowitz, again from ‘live’ performances. The most impressive of these is a video of a Carnegie Hall concert. As might be expected from Horowitz, this is a big-boned rendition, but there are also many charming individual moments of lyricism and a delightfully teasing quasi-waltz (from bar 140). Even in this performance, though, there is sometimes an unwarranted heavy-handedness, a certain lumpiness in the phrasing and rhythmic relationships:

These less appealing characteristics are more pronounced on the various other Horowitz performances on YouTube. Indeed one version (posted by ‘boomzxz’) is nothing short of a travesty.

Arthur Rubinstein

The countless admirers of Arthur Rubinstein would cite the sheer individuality of his poetic sensibility as one of the crowning glories of his playing. His recording of the 1st Ballade, dating from 1959, certainly has those moments of insight, but some will feel that at times his rubato and tonal shading step across the border from revelatory to wilful. For example, the way he curtails the very first note of the piece or flattens out the triplet in bar 4 seem difficult to justify. Chopin was a perpetual revisor, and was on occasion even capable of sending substantially varied versions of the same work to his different publishers, so it would be ill-advised to argue for a frigid fidelity to the text in the performance of his music. However, he notated the rhythm of this Ballade’s introduction so precisely that it seems appropriate to adhere to his written intentions.

Alfred Cortot

Whatever are Rubinstein’s eccentricities, they pale into insignificance when set alongside Cortot’s performance. There is certainly something of the tortured artist here, and Cortot’s rhythmic liberties are at times so spasmodic that he could scarcely be seen as a prime contender. However, if one can disregard his distortions of Chopin’s text in, for example, the second subject, one can be drawn into a quasi-improvisatory dreamscape that is oddly intoxicating.

Lang Lang

Yet pianists from a bygone era such as Cortot don’t have a monopoly on extreme expressive freedom. The ‘live’ video of Lang Lang reminds us that not all today’s pianists are sanitized in comparison with their predecessors. Lang Lang allows himself more poetic (and sometimes textual) licence than most of his colleagues, past and present. There is fervour and panache in abundance; indeed the overall effect might be mesmerising to someone who had never heard the piece before. For those more familiar with the composer’s score and the general stylistic history of Chopin playing, some aspects of his interpretation are likely to be puzzling at best.

Claudio Arrau

For more convincing examples of rhythmic flexibility one might turn to Claudio Arrau. Of the many versions available on YouTube, recorded at various stages of his career, perhaps the most consistently fulfilling is one dating from 1953. Here, his way with the third phrase of the main theme (bars 12-14) or the apogee of the second subject (bars 79-80), to give just two examples, is very rubato indeed, but seems to fit perfectly in the context. Indeed, Arrau’s second theme in general is one of the most exquisitely contoured to be found anywhere. It is true that Arrau is less scintillating than many in the more bravura passages of the work, but this is a performance to treasure for the beauty and gravitas of its musical soul.

Martha Agerich

In many ways Martha Agerich’s interpretation is the polar opposite of Arrau’s, in her characteristic emphasis on the volatile, tempestuous aspects of the work. Yet Agerich also finds room for a winningly tender second subject. Another strength of this performance is the dazzling clarity of her fingerwork in the central section, giving a wonderful sense of caprice.

Evgeny Kissin

This Russian artist strikes a fine balance between respect for the score and apparent spontaneity. Individual phrases are lovingly sculpted and intelligently related to each other; this thoughtful approach shines, for example, in his very organic transition between the first and second subjects (from bar 36). There is much profundity in both main themes (although the slightly halting quality in the first theme is somewhat curious), and the central section pulsates with verve and playfulness.

Unlike many others, Kissin observes Chopin’s con forza (bar 180) in the recapitulation of the second subject, giving this section a great sense of élan. The main body of the coda is not utterly relentless; instead he withdraws at the beginning of certain phrases, both tonally and rhythmically. Rather than detracting from the drama, this seems to magnify the ultimate annihilation.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

In a studio version captured on video, Michelangeli offers an aristocratic reading, understated and seemingly effortless. There’s not much red-blooded passion here, and the performance isn’t free of his ‘left hand before right’ mannerism, but there are substantial compensations, notably an irresistibly languid second subject.

There are also various ‘live’ performances by Michelangeli (posted by ‘RabidCh’ and ‘incontrario motu’ among others) which are by no means carbon copies of each other, but in general he seems more emotionally involved and allows himself more expressive freedom (not always to the music’s advantage) than in the video recording.

Vladimir Ashkenazy

The main recording by Ashkenazy, taken from his Decca box set, has that emotionally searching quality that is one of the hallmarks of this artist. The main theme is mournfully ruminative, setting the tone for a performance full of pathos, perhaps sometimes at the expense of propulsion. Yet there is plenty of the requisite majesty and drama too, and Ashkenazy’s peerless tonal refinement makes for a deeply satisfying listening experience.

There is an earlier ‘live’ performance by Ashkenazy, recorded in Moscow in 1963. This has much more of the impetuosity of youth (it’s over a minute shorter), the expression is in general more overt and the ferocity of the coda even more seismic. The recording quality is admirably clear but shows its age in an occasional hard edge to the piano sound.

Murray Perahia

Perahia gives a powerful and insightful account. Some of the underlying chords in the first theme (especially in the recapitulation) are a little dry and obtrusive, but this is a minor quibble. This is a highly convincing performance, poised and intelligent, titanic when necessary but devoid of hyperbole. Other versions might be more captivating in individual aspects of the work, but few achieve Perahia’s cohesion, both in the relationships between individual phrases and the logic of the overarching structural framework. This masterful grasp of the musical narrative is perfectly illustrated, for example, in the transition (bars 188-194) leading to the final stricken intoning of the first theme.

Emil Gilels

Gilels has an imposingly strident manner in this work, sometimes to good effect, especially in an exciting ‘live’ performance from Leningrad in 1963. There are moments of melting beauty, but in general the emotions are conveyed quite forcefully, and sometimes the sound is a little too stark for the context, for example towards the end of the first theme.

Umi Garrett

There is a remarkable ‘live’ recording by the 14-year-old Umi Garrett. This is not just a question of gaping at a Wunderkind, and musing sagely if the child prodigy will be able to mature into a genuine artist. On the contrary, this is already a fully-fledged performance, full of artistic sensibility as well as marvellous dexterity, one with which to try a ‘blind test’ on your musical friends.

Jorge Bolet

Bolet is represented by a video recording, made late in his career, and indeed this performance has a distinct sense of a master looking back. Although many other pianists engulf us more remorselessly in the work’s turmoil, this performance is suffused with a haunting sadness that perhaps compels more deeply than some other more extrovert readings.

Andrei Gavrilov

Another performance of impeccable artistry comes from Andrei Gavrilov. From his suitably portentous introduction Gavrilov takes us on an absorbing journey through the work’s ever-changing landscapes. This is music-making of the utmost sincerity, and Gavrilov always directs his stupendous physical prowess to the service of the music. Towards the end of a titanic coda, his pronounced rubato and the sheer slowness of the final octave descent (perhaps too melodramatic for some listeners) crown the work with an epic fatalism. Unfortunately the rather muffled sound quality of the recording is not commensurate with the quality of the playing.

Krystian Zimerman

The opening bars in Zimerman’s hands immediately set the tone for a performance of great grandeur and finesse. Every musical gesture is delivered with great conviction. His rubato is highly idiomatic and his phrasing wonderfully nuanced, although he is less ethereal than some in the more introspective episodes, especially the initial statement of the second subject. The central A major statement of the second theme is toweringly imperious. Overall, Zimerman’s interpretation has a severity that seems entirely appropriate, no more so than in the main body of the coda which is relentlessly pulverising rather than frenetic, leading with gripping inevitability to a bone-crushing final catastrophe.

So who are the best interpreters of Chopin’s First Ballade?

With such a range of outstanding performances to choose from it is genuinely difficult to select one definitive version. The most poignantly lyrical performances are not necessarily the most riveting in the more magmatic or mercurial aspects of the work. Ashkenazy, Gavrilov, Kissin, Pollini, Perahia and Zimerman are amongst the most enthralling communicators of Chopin’s kaleidoscope of emotions. But if forced to take just one performance to the proverbial desert island, it would be Krystian Zimerman.

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Top Tips for Successful Piano Practice

Invaluable Insights for Aspiring Pianists

The question piano teachers are most frequently asked about practising is how much should be done per day. While this is important (and I’ll come to it later), the more fundamental question is about the quality of the practice. More progress can be made in 15 well-directed minutes than in a listless hour. Here are some tips on how to make the most of your practice time.

Always have a clear aim

If you eavesdrop on the practice of a top pianist, you might be surprised how much silence there is between the notes you hear, especially if the passage being practised and repeated is relatively short. Successful practising is often preceded by a few moments of clear thought (what am I aiming for?) and followed by an evaluation of the passage just played (how close did I come to that aim?).

Conversely, mindless repetition without a second’s pause of the same short passage, if the result is not improving, is worse than useless, as it reinforces an imperfect or inconsistent outcome.

So the trick is to pause between each attempt, assess how you have just played and have a defined goal for the next repetition (to maximise progress you may need to concentrate on a very small unit within the phrase – more of this below). The crucial thing is that the mind must be fully engaged to achieve the best results in the shortest time.

Isolate the specific challenge

As most teachers will confirm, many students have a tendency, when they stumble over a difficult corner in a piece, to go back too far (even back to the beginning) and try again, hoping the problem will be solved second time through. It almost invariably won’t be! Instead, for the quickest results we need to focus on the difficulty in a very localised way.

This principle applies even from our earliest steps on the piano. A short piece in a tutor book might move mainly in crotchets, but contain one bar of quavers. If you set a tempo suitable to the crotchets, but then struggle with the quavers, it’s necessary to work on the quavers first, initially at a reduced tempo. Once you can play the quavers securely and without hesitation, gradually return to the full tempo. Then start from the preceding bar (crotchets) and join it to the bar of quavers. Hopefully you can now make the transition to quavers smoothly and without slowing down. In case you can’t, be patient and go through the process again.

Focus on the smallest unit, then build outwards

In a more advanced piece, the challenge may be to achieve evenness of rhythm and/or tone in a rapid passage. In this case, pinpoint the uneven links (by listening very closely) and practise these many times at the full tempo with crisp finger strokes (always keeping mentally fully focussed!) in the smallest cells of 3, 4 or 5 notes, ensuring absolute evenness. Then add the one or two notes from immediately before and after, and continue to add small groups of notes until you re-establish the full context. If the difficult few notes become uneven again at any point, isolate them once more and build up again.

Incidentally, if the unevenness problem arises because of a weaker finger (normally the 4th) it is a good gymnastic exercise to finish the group of 3, 4 or 5 notes being practised on a firm and bouncy staccato on the 4th finger (imagine the key is hot so that your finger wants to spring off as quickly as possible). Repeating this many times might drive your family mad, but it is an effective way to activate and strengthen a weaker finger. This is of course best instigated under the supervision of a teacher, to make sure that the attack on the last note is made in a physically appropriate way (effortless power rather than powerless effort). In any case, stop immediately if you feel any tension or strain in your hand.

Always pay attention to your hand position too; it could be that slight adjustments of the angle of your hand, or its position with regard to the junction of white and black keys, can be very helpful. Again, it’s difficult to convey this adequately outside a proper lesson, but it’s something you can experiment with.

Alter the rhythm in fast passage work

Once you have worked on the most obvious difficult moments in a fast passage, as described in the previous section, this next practice method helps you to establish continuity. If the music moves in semiquavers, lengthen the first note of each group of 4 semiquavers, making it into a dotted quaver, then play the rest of the notes in the group at full speed, leading into the first note of the next group, where you pause again, and carry on throughout in this manner. So in effect the rhythm becomes a dotted quaver followed by 3 semiquavers throughout. It is also worth doing the same procedure starting from the third note of each group.

These exercises make your fingers work at the required tempo, but by prolonging one note in each group, this enables you to get your bearings, and listen more carefully for evenness. Once you can play the whole passage fluently in this way, you should be ready to join it all together as the composer wrote.

Increase the challenge, overcome it, then integrate it with ease

Let’s say, for example, that the problem is to execute a leap accurately and without rhythmic delay. The tempo is fast and the last two notes (or chords) before the leap are quavers. A good practice technique is to change the rhythm of the two preceding notes into a dotted quaver followed by a semiquaver, so that we have to make the leap even more quickly (again, imagine the ‘semiquaver’ piano key is hot, and use it as a springboard to kickstart the leap). Just practise these three notes many times in this rhythm, with a supple hand and wrist, to increase your agility and accuracy on the leap itself. Once it is secure, gradually add the preceding notes, keeping the amended rhythm at first and then reverting to the original. By this stage it is likely you have mastered the difficult leap. If not, just repeat the routine until you do succeed.

This concept of artificially increasing a localised challenge and focusing on it very specifically, before re-integrating it, is very useful in helping us conquer many of the physical scenarios we face in piano music.

Practising with a metronome

Using a metronome to build up speed gradually in a fast passage is an time-honoured practice technique, and the many repetitions you will do are helpful in embedding the musical text firmly in the muscular memory. However, make sure there is no unevenness or awkwardness. If there is, practise first in the smaller units, as outlined above.

A paradoxical discipline

If we think of ‘discipline’ in terms of music practice, or indeed any other educational activity, we usually assume it’s about being diligent in doing enough practice before we can stop or relax. However, sometimes the opposite can be true, especially for more advanced and aspirational players. As practising the piano is (or should be) a highly concentrated mental and physical activity, not many people can regularly sustain constructive practice for more than an hour. For the serious pianist, it can be very tempting to keep obsessing over a difficulty, extending the practice session to well over an hour, especially if progress seems to be slow or non-existent. But in fact this is exactly the right time to summon the discipline to walk away for a few minutes. Eat a snack, do a little stretching. When we return to the piano, refreshed after the break, we are more lucid and so progress is usually much more rapid.

So … how much practice?

As promised, I now come back to this theme. The most important tenet is regularity of practice. Half an hour per day is much better than cramming 3 hours’ practice into only one day of the week. If you are sufficiently enthusiastic and have the opportunity to practise every day, that’s great. However, taking a day (or even two) off from practising each week is not normally a disadvantage; indeed it can help us focus the next day with renewed vigour. So ideally I would recommend practising five or six days per week.

As for how much practice to do each day, it’s only possible to give rough guidelines, as there are so many variables: e.g. age and aptitude, how regular and imminent the targets are (exams, concerts etc).

If we relate practice time to a graded exam syllabus (Associated Board or Trinity), and assume one grade to be taken every year, a good average would be 20 minutes per day for grade one, rising to about an hour for grade five, and to perhaps two hours for grade eight. For students of high attainment, the exams can be taken more quickly (e.g. three exams in two years), with broadly the same practice regime. In all cases, however, it is optimal to incorporate a decent amount of non-exam material to give a healthy variety to the musical menu. Viewing the exams as mere educational trophies to be charged through at breakneck speed can be artistically misguided.

If your ambition is to become a concert pianist, in effect the practice becomes a full-time job, so it would not be unusual to be doing six or more hours per day if you go on to study piano at a conservatoire. Although Artur Rubinstein quipped that he did most of his practising on stage, the reality is that to reach the artistic heights requires immense amounts of work. Even at this level, though, it’s important to take regular breaks. If you have been practising for an hour, and it’s still productive, that’s fine. If not, walk away for a few minutes.

To come full circle, and at the risk of repeating myself, the best practising is about setting specific objectives, and concentrating fully on achieving them, rather than watching the clock. If you are able to work consistently in this purposeful way, you are likely to amaze yourself with the rapidity of your progress … and still have time to spare!

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Should you do graded exams?

This is very much a matter of personal preference. The exams of the two main organisations (Associated Board and Trinity) are a well-established part of the music education landscape in the UK and Commonwealth countries. Many students find the discipline of such graded structures extremely useful, even necessary. Moreover, the exams give scope to develop listening skills (via the aural tests in particular) and general musicianship.

But such exams are not for everybody, and indeed there are plenty of countries worldwide which don’t have any similar kind of system and are perfectly capable of turning out top-class musicians. Adults in particular, who are not part of any competitive educational environment, might find the rigours of following an exam syllabus more of a hindrance than a help.

My own view

Personally I’m not a fan of the ‘conveyor-belt’ approach to graded exams, where the student simply takes one exam after another without any pause to explore other repertoire or musical avenues. This can lead to pianists with a rather narrow focus. So when I’m taking students through an exam system I prefer to give them a broader range of musical experience between the grades, without causing undue delay in the attainment of the exams themselves.

Other information

Sometimes teachers neglect the aural test and sight-reading components of the exams until the last minute, which can lead to unpleasant surprises in the exam itself! So I always make sure to start work on these elements early, and prepare thoroughly.

Apart from the graded exams mentioned above, I also prepare students for the A-level piano practical exam, and can indeed coach you for any exam or audition you require.

The Associated Board requires the student to pass their grade 5 theory exam before taking the grade 6 piano exam, and you can study for that (and any other) theory exam with me too. Although the grade 5 theory is the only official exam stipulation, I believe in introducing the main components of music theory from the early stages, as a knowledge of these aspects helps the student learn pieces more quickly and interpret them more effectively.

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There’s no doubt that a proper acoustic piano, in good condition, offers a quality and subtlety of sound that no electronic instrument can match. But it is normally the most expensive option. Even if you manage to find a bargain second-hand piano, a decent one is likely to be over £1000.

The next best option is a digital piano, some of which have a high degree of touch sensitivity. Prices for feasible digital pianos can be under £400, but better quality models cost considerably more than that. If your piano practice is likely to disturb your neighbours, the facility to use headphones gives an electronic instrument a considerable advantage.

If you type in ‘acoustic or digital piano’ on the internet, you will see some useful and objective articles to help you in your choice. A particularly helpful one is: www.pianobuyer.com/spring11/11.html

At the budget end of the market there are all kinds of other keyboards, often with limited touch sensitivity but with plenty of buttons and gadgets. These can be fun and stimulating, but they are not the best vehicle for the more serious student. You should definitely avoid any keyboard which has less than the standard 88 keys, or where the keys are narrower than those on a normal acoustic or digital piano.

The current range and choice of digital pianos and electronic keyboards can be truly bewildering. The most informative article I have found on this subject is at:  www.tuition.ridgwick.com

Here’s another very useful website:  www.ukpianos.co.uk

Your decision as to which instrument to buy is a highly important one, and I will be very happy to help, as I have done with other students and friends, often saving them substantial amounts of money and hassle.

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