What Sweeter Music Can We Bring?

Hugh Wood's Ballade Op.57 for Piano was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and first performed by Joanna MacGregor on 7th June 2012 at the Guildhall Bath as part of the Bath International Music Festival.'The music of Chopinis a revelation which came disgracefully late in my life. To admire is one thing; to try to emulate is quite another: and all that I have borrowed here is a title. Perhaps memories of Joanna MacGregor performing the FourthBallade very beautifully long ago played a part in the naming. But to define what a Ballade should or should not be is quite beyond me: after all Chopin and Brahms both came to quite different conclusions. I just like theold rather poetic word.A fanfarish beginning ends in a falling arpeggionic cascade which will recur in varied form at turning points throughout the piece. A major third emerges to become the accompaniment to the mainlyrical melody which becomes more and more decorated until it ends with a second cascade. The tune resumes more urgently against an undulating semiquaver accompaniment. A bigger climax suddenly gives way to a reminiscence of oneof the opening figures and then introduces alla recit. a new motif. But immediately the main melody continues this time getting gradually calmer quieter and sweeter until the new motif takes over in a passage of 6 and ismore fully worked out.From very high up the opening fanfares are heard in the distance and a faster tempo brings a more vigorous passage culminating in the biggest and most climactic of the cascades. This might be theend of the piece but it is not. A sequence of soft velvety chords rises up eventually to reveal the original major third. Four phrases of the opening melody are then heard over it in their plainest form.' - H.W.