Liszt: Ballade No.1 in Db Major, S.170 (Fischer, Pierdomenico)

Liszt’s first Ballade is a pretty sadly underrated work, probably because its sibling in B minor, written around 10 years later, has a much more obviously ambitious narrative scope. But the first ballade too is a lovely work of great craft. It’s essentially a series of variations on two themes – a cantabile melody in thirds, and a contrasting gently humorous march. The variations on the first theme are especially striking – all of them heavily emphasise the dominant and are built around untethering the movement of the melodic and non-melodic hands (hence all that hand-crossing). It’s the kind of ingenious textural exploration that Liszt would also deploy La Campanella, and generates some wonderful results here. [A little note: the first theme is actually in two parts, and in the analysis below I’ve separated the two parts when numbering variations to better take into account all of Liszt’s changes in texture.] The march theme, which constitutes the middle section of the work, rather sneakily integrates a motif first heard in the work’s introduction, and undergoes some pretty striking transformations to eventually turn, at its climax, into an anguished cry. (The transformation of Motif A into a heroic theme at 4:36 is also pretty neat.) After the middle section, the variations on the first theme resume, and a heart-stoppingly delicate, glittering final variation (7:04) leads into a final statement of the march theme, which closes the work.

INTRODUCTION
0:00 – An improvisatory line ascends out of the bass (it’s nice entertaining the thought that this is a homage to Chopin’s Op.23), followed by Motif A descending. This pattern is repeated, the second time with diminished 7th harmony.

A SECTION, in Db
0:43 – Theme 1a, a lush melody built around tonic/dominant oscillation, is introduced.
1:11 – T1a, Var.1. Languorous hand-crossing, with Ab pedals in RH.
1:39 – Theme 1b, beginning in the relative minor.
2:05 – T1b, Var.1. Trills in the upper register, then chromatic mediant colour at 2:17.
2:38 – T1a, Var.2. Gentle cross-rhythms strongly emphasising the dominant, plus lots of free-hand-crossing.
2:59 – T1a, Var.3. Broken Ab octaves gently daubing the entire upper half of the keyboard. Still more hand-crossing.

B SECTION, in A
3:24 – Theme 2, an initially hopeful, even self-deprecating march. Modulates into dark C# min at its tail.
3:46 – T2, Var.1. T2 moves up one octave, while the LH now places widely-spaced but nearly empty chords. The modulating tail now takes on a dramatic character and leads into
4:07 – T2, Var.2. Triumphant, in E, with an implied B pedal.
4:15 – Motif A makes a surprise return from the introduction, retaining its slightly tipsy character. But at 4:36, it’s suddenly diverted from its usual downward scurry and attains a rather triumphant sound.
4:48 – T2, Var.3, in F#. Broad and powerful, with lush chords in the LH. But the tail of the theme at 5:02 launches the melody into a sequence of increasingly dramatic modulations over a descending/ascending octave line in the LH, culminating in
5:19 – T2, Var.4. A climactic statement of the march in F# min, with agonising leaps in the LH. But then a zipper-like scale leads back to
5:31 – Motif A, now with alternating chords in both hands. Motif A is developed as before, taking on a more dramatic character, until it culminates in
6:00 – Two strepitoso octave descents, leading back to the

A SECTION, in Db
6:15 – T1a, Var.4. The theme now forceful, while Abs leap from the bass into the top registers of the piano.
6:31 – T1a, Var.5 Leaping trills on Ab in the RH (hand-crossing inevitable), with occasional chromatic runs. (La Campanella vibes on this one)
6:48 – T1b, Var.2. Triplet runs in the RH, with decorative harmonic neighbour tones.
7:04 – T1b, Var.3. The most drastic transformation in this work. The melody dissolves into a series of downward arpeggiated runs that gradually descend the keyboard and grow in strength, reaching the
CODA
7:38 – T2 returns in ff, rapidly ascending the piano until m.188, when Motif A brings us back down to the final tonic-submediant oscillation at m.190 (this is the harmonic progression on which the march is built; see the LH at m.63).

[AshishXiangyiKumar]

0:00 – Fischer
7:56 – Pierdomenico

Fischer’s playing has a wonderful improvisational quality to it, evident right from the introduction – the dim./ritard. she puts in the opening rising line, and the little accelerando she gives to the descending chords right after. She takes the first theme at a relatively relaxed place, but just listen to how it sensuously she ploughs it into the keyboard – the rubato and dynamic control here is superb. Fischer also has the best performance of the middle section I’ve heard by far – very often the march can end up sounding scraggly, but her brisk tempo and a whole host of creative interpretive decisions make this bit surprisingly unforgettable. For instance: when the A Motif enters, she retains its whimsical, staccato character the first time (4:16), but softens it with pedal into a kind of murmur the second time (5:31). And at 5:10, in the middle of a dramatic buildup, she inserts an unexpected diminuendo to make space for a more precipitous crescendo at the top of the phrase.

Pierdomenico puts in a meltingly beautiful performance here. It’s tauter than Fischer’s, but butter-smooth in all the outer variations while remaining no less detail-oriented. See, for instance, how he emphasises the rhythmic dissonance of the variation at 10:00, the feather-light pianissimo he conjures at 9:38, or the teasing out of the much-neglected second voice in the LH of the final variation at 14:26. He also makes the excellent decision to abruptly increase the tempo for Var.3 of the march (12:11) – the climax at 12:39 has an almost desperate, wild-eyed quality.

[tchaffman]

Love that Chopin Ballade No. 1 quote at the very beginning

[sunnywang]

three uploads from Ashish in a day? this is a dream come true

[smikkelbeer]

Oh my god this is so beautiful. Never knew Liszt wrote ballades.

[AshishXiangyiKumar]

Knowing people, there's probably going to be a good deal of chat about the final variation (which by itself seems to justify the price of entry). So to save everyone the effort, here are the timestamps for it (these make a pretty good point of comparison too): 7:04, 14:25.

[julianmellado]

One of my favourite little works by Liszt. Although I still prefer Jean Dube's rendition of the First Ballade (I find it a bit more delicate), I want to thank you, Ashish, for your work here. It's always a delight to be able to compare so many wonderful versions of these works!

[foxiszt]

The Vivamente at 7:05 also at 14:25 sounds so beautiful. One is bright and fast, one is soft and delicate. Thanks for upload 2 recordings. <3

[lizzybach]

This ballade reminds me of Christmas, probably because of its playful nature, beautiful.

[facundogonzalez]

One of the most interesting "hidden" pieces by Liszt. I learned it some time ago with the famous 2nd one, and both together works so well..

[AnAmericanComposer]

That A Major modulation is fantastic in its simplicity

[fredericchopin]

This is simply an example of Liszt’s less heard gems. Grand, quaint and telling a story at the same time, what a fantastic piece :)

[thefredericchopin]

Everyone talks about Liszt’s second ballade, which, granted, is superb, but I think this is grossly underrated. That simple yet beautiful waltz at the start, the march (which is really earwormish) and the incredible cascading demisemiquaver runs at the end makes this ballade amazing. My only problem is the Più animato segment at the end - I think it sort of cuts off the feeling of the cascading runs. Thanks for uploading.

[jahman]

I am very glad that you uploaded this! As you pointed out in your description, it is very sad that this beautiful piece almost always gets overlooked by the 2nd Ballade. The ending section is so great, and it manages to get better every second.

[ng]

I always enjoy reading your description, keep up the good work!

[simonr]

Thanks for the upload and interesting commentary. I heard it for the first time today and I'm not sure I'd call it a masterpiece, but it's an intriguing piece and may grow on me - I love the typically quirky introduction and embellishment of the more lyrical theme. It's a strange work, both in terms of its content and title - unlike its successor, which is much closer in spirit to the great Chopin ballades, it doesn't sound like the kind of music I would associate with the romantic piano ballade, as epitomized by Chopin, Brahms, Grieg and Faure. It seems part serenade and part heroic march (and TBH the melody there isn't one of Liszt's strongest) but it's an original work and deserves to be heard more.

[boqueefawigg]

Fischer definitely interprets the B section much more playfully and elegantly than Dube’s interpretation. Thanks for the upload

[romandubois]

Great job, making people discover new pieces and interpretations, you truly are a good one

[TroyLan]

Jean Dube gave this soul a piece! Incomparable!!!

[reimakousei]

It's so underrated, it's my favourite ballade from liszt

[vaclavmiller]

Hmm. I don't know what it is, but this ballade isn't quite my cup of tea – some of it approaches (dare I say it) 'silliness' to my ear. Hopefully I'll grow to love it as I do the second.