Undertakes the history of this verse form from its origins in romance lands through France and England. Shows how the formal ballade became reduced to three sta

The Guardian editor and amateur pianist’s account of a remarkable musical challenge during an extraordinary year for news. As editor of the Guardian, one of t

Chopin's four ballades are widely regarded as being amongst the most significant extended works for solo piano of the nineteenth century. In an illuminating dis

Chopin's Polish Ballade examines the Second Ballade, Op. 38, and how that work gave voice to the Polish cultural preoccupations of the 1830s, using musical conv