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Music room / Classical music / Chopin / 2nd Ballade
Latest Post: November 12, 2009 at 3:31 AM
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Edna Stern says: (Follow this user)
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Whenever I play lately the 2nd Ballade of Chopin my mind wanders to this movie and picture of "Drag me to hell.” I was recently explaining how I imagined the fast theme as a descent to hell coming from the right hand and the movement of the devil coming up to grab its prey from the left hand. (I was listened to with a mix of amusement and incredulity.) Today I checked with an edition I rarely work with, and which is extremely interesting, written by Cortot. He writes in his preface that Schumann got it directly from Chopin that these Ballades were inspired by poems of Adam Mickiewicz and the second Ballade in particular by the poem “The Switez”. The ballades’ story is about a lake near a polish city once destroyed by the Russians. The legend tells that the young polish girls, in order to avoid the shame awaiting them from their conquerors, asked to be swallowed by the earth which suddenly opened under their feet, and they were turned into these strange flowers on the lake’s borders. Unfortunate be the one who touches them!

Books Discussed

Treasury of Love Poems by Adam Mickiewicz: In Polish and English
by Adam Mickiewicz
Ballades, romances et autres poèmes
by Adam Mickiewicz; Roger Legras


 

November 1, 2009 at 10:13 AM

This post is referenced by the following other contributors:
Arthur Mont in "Painting music" (Art Gallery)
Michel de Graph says: (Follow this user)
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Hi Edna,
I was looking in Schumann's writing on Chopin's 2nd Ballade and, at least in the version I have, he says:
"He [Chopin] told us then how he was prompted to his ballades by poems of Mickiewicz."
Perhaps there are other versions, but at least from this part it is not clear it is inspired by the poem  "The Switez"  and could have been an invention of Cortot. Well, Cortot is not bad in Chopin so there's no shame if you two thought alike. (For what it's worth, your description sounds plausible to me.)
Perhaps it appears in one of his letter though. In any case it's of no consequence. I like your connection with the picture of Drag me to hell.

Schumann doesn't say much else on the Ballade but the quote continues with: "Conversely, a poet might easily be inspired to set words to his music. It evokes the most intimate of thoughts."

Books Discussed

Schumann on Music: A Selection from the Writings
by Robert Schumann


 

November 12, 2009 at 3:31 AM
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This topic has the following siblings:

Chopin - Notes on Chopin

Chopin - Prelude op. 45

Chopin - 3rd Ballade

  
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