Taught by renowned pianist
Gary Graffman
Join Gary Graffman as he sits down with tonebase's Ben Laude to discuss Chopin's Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38.<br><br>Graffman, one of the top American pianists of the 20th Century, listens to his own performance of the Ballade recorded for RCA in 1959. Moving passage-by-passage, Graffman tells the story of the legendary sunken city of Świteź as depicted by Adam Mickiewicz's poem, which is regarded by many to have inspired Chopin's composition (although scholars have never definitively proven this connection).<br><br>Graffman hears the placid lake depicted in Chopin's long, gently lilting opening phrases. Soon, a storm rages and an invading naval fleet is heard approaching during the Allegro con fuoco section. As the coda approaches, you hear the fleet dragged underwater. Pandemonium ensues and the entire fleet drowns. The storm passes and the lake returns to an eerie calm, as the lilting hymn returns and dies away in A Minor.
Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38
Join Gary Graffman as he sits down with tonebase's Ben Laude to discuss Chopin's Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38.
Graffman, one of the top American pianists of the 20th Century, listens to his own performance of the Ballade recorded for RCA in 1959. Moving passage-by-passage, Graffman tells the story of the legendary sunken city of Świteź as depicted by Adam Mickiewicz's poem, which is regarded by many to have inspired Chopin's composition (although scholars have never definitively proven this connection).
Graffman hears the placid lake depicted in Chopin's long, gently lilting opening phrases. Soon, a storm rages and an invading naval fleet is heard approaching during the Allegro con fuoco section. As the coda approaches, you hear the fleet dragged underwater. Pandemonium ensues and the entire fleet drowns. The storm passes and the lake returns to an eerie calm, as the lilting hymn returns and dies away in A Minor.
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Unlock Course →Curtis Institute faculty member and the teacher of Lang Lang and Yuja Wang, Gary Graffman has been a major figure in the music world since his debut with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1947 at the age of eighteen.
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