Description
Liszt wrote his two Ballades during a period of personal upheaval, with the first Ballade composed in 1845–49 and the second in 1853. As a successful virtuoso increasingly focused on formal clarity, Liszt composed his renowned B minor sonata that same year. The first Ballade was born amidst Liszt's separation from his longtime mistress, Marie Comtesse d'Agoult, and he initially titled the work "Dernières Illusions." The second Ballade in B minor, a more famous composition, presented Liszt with a particular challenge, as evidenced by the two fortissimo endings published for the first time in the appendix to this edition.
