F. Chopin - Ballade Op. 38 no. 2 in F major
Music from the collection of Aaron Dunn.
Chopin started composing the ballade in 1836 in Nohant, France. It was one of unfinished works he took with him to Mallorca for a winter stay with George Sand. Chopin announced completion of the ballade in a letter dated 14 December 1838, and by January 1840, he had sold the work to Breitkopf & Härtel for publication, along with the Piano Sonata No. 2, Scherzo No. 3, Polonaises Op. 40, Mazurkas Op. 41, Nocturnes Op. 37, and Impromptu No. 2.
Robert Schumann, who had dedicated his Kreisleriana, Op. 16, to Chopin, received the dedication of this ballade in return.
The piece has been criticized by some prominent pianists and musicologists, including its dedicatee Schumann, as a less ingenious work than the first. There is some degree of disagreement as to its inspiration, with the claim, often made that it was inspired by Adam Mickiewicz's poem Świtezianka, the lake of Willis, but this claim is unsubstantiated, and the Ballade No. 3 is sometimes attributed to this poem as well.