Taught by renowned instructor
Michelle Cann
Join Michelle Cann, Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies at the Curtis Institute, for a deep dive into one of Chopin’s most beautiful concert works, the Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Op. 47. While the other Ballades boast flashy codas, the Third is most notable for its radiant beauty and lyricism. Cann shares her insights into music and the challenges it presents to the pianist, drawing from decades of intimate experience with Chopin's score.
Chopin's Musical Narrative
Each of Chopin's Four Ballades invokes a narrative, but no explicit story is indicated by the composer or the music. In this introduction to her course on the Third Ballade, Michelle Cann refers to Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz's 'Undine' as one potential influence, and her personal source of inspiration for the piece.
First Theme Area
Chopin's Third Ballade begins suggestively, as if welcoming you into its waters. For Michelle Cann, the piece might be inspired by the legend of Undine – albeit with a happy ending. Cann introduces you to the main theme area in A-flat, and shows how Chopin disturbs the peace with a slight harmonic shift and introduces a radiant C major sonority that will recur throughout the piece.
Second Theme Area
One of the most recognizable motives from Chopin's Third Ballade is the rocking 2-note slur gestures that provide the primary material for the second theme. Michelle Cann reveals what is so surprising and intriguing in Chopin's rocking motive, and breaks down the two episodes that emerge from it – first, a dark chordal variation in F minor that is kept unsettled by constant syncopations; and later, an excursion in right-hand arpeggios and runs that peaks and settles back in the home key of A-flat.
Development & Climax
Chopin's Third Ballade is notable for being the only one of the four not to end with a self-enclosed coda where new, virtuosic material is introduced for the first time in the midst of a whirlwind ending. Instead, the piece ends in exalted restatement of earlier themes in a final climax that grows seamlessly out of the piece's development. Michelle Cann shows you how to resolve the technical demands of these final pages, from the swirling left-hand passagework to the dramatic right-hand broken octaves, while at the same time finding meaning in every note.
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Unlock Course →Michelle Cann is known for her virtuosic technique, expressive interpretations, and as a champion of the music of Florence Price. She currently serves as a faculty member at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she holds the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies.
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