Chopin's Polish Ballade

"A solid study. Recommended." --Choice "Ingenious, entertaining, and convincing - Jonathan Bellman's book deftly demonstrates how the study of a single piece of music can open a new window onto an entire cultural world."--Kenneth Hamilton, author of After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance "Chopin's Polish Ballade is a highly original and much needed contribution to the literature on Chopin. Jonathan Bellman is the perfect author for the first book-length analysis of second Ballade, as he brings to the project the instincts of a practiced historian of music and a seasoned performer. This is a book that will appeal to musicologists, to performers, and to amateur pianists and music-lovers."--Jeffrey Kallberg, Professor and Chair, Department of Music, University of Pennsylvania and author of Chopin at the Boundaries: Sex, History, and Musical Genre "Highly recommendable to performers and music students alike, and more especially to anyone who still underestimates Chopin." --Classical Music Magazine "An intriguing contribution to a fresh look at the composer and his music...Although never "dumbed down," this volume is highly readable, even compelling." --Clavier Companion "By synthesizing, building on, and complicating existing scholarship on the Chopin ballades, Bellman has, with thoroughness, sophistication, and analytic verve, gone far to complete the expressive picture that Chopin indicates in his Second Ballade." --Notes "An interesting, albeit controversial, interpretation of Chopin's Op. 38 Ballade as a tale of the martyrdom of the Polish nation...This book is important for our understanding of the work's reception in the Parisian milieu...The author helps us to understand why it was seen as Polish and national. The polyvalence of instrumental music admits various interpretations, yet listeners choose the reading which they most desire and expect." --Fontes Artis Musicae