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Frederic Chopin was a renowned 19th century pianist and composer. Born in Warsaw in 1811, he left at the age of 20 due to political uprising in Poland. Yet, though he spent most of the remainder of his life in France, he will always be associated with his native country. Many of Chopin’s pieces—especially the polonaises and mazurkas—were based on Polish dances, and he is part of the nationalist trend which was a major part of the Romantic period. But more importantly, Chopin was one of, if not THE most, significant piano composers to ever live. He wrote music that sounds ahead of its time, but this is chiefly because his style would influence generations to come. Not every composer would be able to write exactly like Chopin, but they were often influenced at least a little by him. Most of Chopin’s music is for piano solo or piano with orchestra, and all his music has a piano part with it, in contrast to composers like Beethoven and Brahms who were also renowned for their orchestral works. This specialization allowed Chopin to take his piano writing to the highest level, and he did indeed. To this day, he remains one of the most famous composers to ever live, and deservedly so. In his 39 years, he wrote masterpieces such as the Grande valse brillante in E-flat (Op. 18), the Ballade in G Minor (Op. 23), the Sonata in B-flat Minor (op. 35), the Military Polonaise in A Major (Op. 40, No. 1), the Great Polonaise in A-flat (Op. 53), and a host of others which, even if you do not recognize the titles, you are bound to have heard, so commonly are they still performed today. At the time of his death, Chopin left behind a significant number of unpublished works. He requested that these be destroyed; fortunately, this request was not followed, as these pieces are all beautiful works. This ballade is not one of those. In fact, it is not even by Chopin, who only wrote four ballades. It is by Franz Xaver Scharwenka, a much more obscure Polish composer who lived 1850-1924. Most of Scharwenka’s output is piano music, and he was one of the great Chopin imitators, like Rachmaninoff and Scriabin—composers who satisfied the listener’s craving for more Chopin. Sadly, his music has fallen into obscurity and is rarely heard today. The Ballade No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 8, by Scharwenka is a good representation of his concert pieces and deserves to be heard a lot more than it is. If you enjoy it, I hope you’ll find out more about Scharwenka, and maybe even play his music. His compositions are all available on IMSLP: :Scharwenka,_Xaver Thank you for listening! Ballade No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 8 by Franz Xaver Scharwenka performed by Matthew Zisi For a free copy of the sheet music, please click here: ,(Scharwenka,_Xaver)
