Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 – The Lost Manuscript (First-Ever Full Reconstruction & Recording)

For the first time in history, the earliest known manuscript of Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52 has been fully reconstructed and recorded in its entirety. This recently acquired manuscript, now held by the Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina, reveals striking differences from the published versions we know today—differences that have never before been performed in full until now. Through careful study of the high-quality images released by the institute, I have reconstructed this fragmentary manuscript, deciphering the layers of Chopin’s revisions, including numerous scratched-out markings that obscure his original intentions.

One of the most striking differences lies in the opening, which is transformed. Instead of the familiar 6/8 meter with eighth and sixteenth notes, the manuscript opens in 6/4 time with quarter notes, altering its rhythmic structure and character. Additionally, a key melodic change occurs in the sixteenth-note motive of the melody, where the melody descends by a half step rather than repeating the same two notes as in the standard version. Chopin’s revision process is also on full display in the second repetition of the theme on the first page of the manuscript, in which the crossed out long "scribbles" match, note for note, the embellishments that appears later in page 2 (Paderewski Edition). Originally, Chopin planned for embellishments to appear immediately, but he later crossed them out in favor of a more gradual development.

Since this manuscript is only a fragment, I have carried the unique melodic and harmonic changes across the entire piece, adapting them where necessary to maintain coherence. However, in dense or harmonically complex passages where modifications were impractical, I preserved the original texture. Interestingly, there is one instance where I instinctively played the passage as it is commonly known, simply due to muscle memory—but I liked the performance enough to leave it as is.

Now, for the music: It expresses a world that is experienced and represents a world that is possible, ideal, and imagined. It is just within reach. It is just out of reach. It is a music which expresses every human emotion, sometimes even all at once. It is the peak of Chopin's piano writing, and the fullness of the human spirit. It is noble, but furious, elegant yet enraged, poetic yet volatile, intimate yet vast, weightless yet anchored. It sings with tenderness yet trembles with despair, rises with grandeur yet collapses into whispers. It is structured yet free, disciplined yet impassioned, measured yet unpredictable. It reaches toward the divine yet remains deeply human, yearning for resolution yet reveling in uncertainty. It is both a declaration and a question, a memory and a prophecy, an echo of something lost and a vision of something just beyond reach. It is a world unto itself—at once fragile and indomitable, whispered and thundered, fleeting and eternal—a reflection of the soul in its fullest expression, caught between the past and the possible, reaching always for something just beyond the horizon.


Performed by Matthew Cates.