18:40 I got chills listening. She is a MASTER of the craft and knows this piece to the most intricate details, to be able to make it sound this good. Hats off.
As a Chopin fanatic I love the enthusiasm that Ms. Cann shows for Chopin and this piece in particular. Her phrasing and dynamics are beautiful, and the performance advise she gives is excellent.
I enjoy this artist’s passion and deep love and understanding of this Chopin ballade! Thank you, Tonebase, for making this amazing tutorial and all videos in your channel accessible to classical musicians world wide.
Love this! She conveys the technical aspects of her playing and the emotional intuition of a seasoned musician. I deeply identify with her philosophy of following the music rather than needing to prove yourself. Wonderful!
This was a wonderful treat. It is always gratifying to see another Black classical musician / teacher… particularly a pianist , my instrument . Unfortunately, we are still comparatively small in number. Again, this was an unalloyed pleasure. Please do more…
I think it's incredible how the most subtle of nuances can change the emotion of a piece of music. What she mentioned in the very beginning about the music describing characters in a story was also quite insightful and reminds me of something I read recently: "Music is speech."
Wow Michelle, your talent, enthusiasm and joy are so infectious to experience. You're a great teacher who so vividly conveys the idea that technique, art and emotion are all joined at the hip. Well done! 🎹
Michelle I can't tell you how beautifully you play this Ballade by Chopin....the way you analyze the mood and character of this dynamic composition is remarkable. The Curtis institute must be thrilled to have you as an instructor. I'm just learning of you here. I, too, am a Philadelphian and a great admirer of Chopin's music. I would love to see you in performance one day. Thank you for your masterful lesson my love ❤️🤩
This is a most BRILLIANT lesson !! Congratulations on your excellent presentation and enthusiasm. I have been a piano teacher for 45 years and I studied this work in 1983 at university. It’s a beauty! I just wish I had the opportunity to work with you on this piece. You’re so inspirational!
Ms. Cann not only tells you how to execute these incredible sounds, her imaginative palette of color and sound brings everything to life in this Ballade which can sound so trite in the wrong hands. The structure is so important in this piece as in all of the Balades. Ms. Cann, how I wish that my student could study with you, but unfortunately, it's so hard to get into Curtis. I'm telling her that when the time comes, she should bring in something meaningful to her pre-screening video. Thank you!!!
Proud of this sistah for representing. This piece brings back bad memories. My second memory slip up during a recital after fifteen years of performing.
Ms. Cann you are fabulous! Such a wonderful and joyful coach. I played this 20 years ago and I must come back to it again and take your advice to heart. No wonder that you have such an important position at Curtis. I am forever a big fan of Curtis Alumni Jorge Bolet, Samual Barber, Abbey Simon and Shura Cherkassky. Not to mention Mr. Serkin. Best Regards. Thank You for this.
Great lesson! She clearly loves this piece, has plenty of interesting things to say about it, and it seems to me that she has a natural affinity with the music of Chopin, the music just flows. There is a great interview with her (in two parts) at Living the Classical Life. I highly recommend it for musicians and non-musicians alike, for there are many gems in that interview!
Wonderful to see people of color in classical music. As a pianist of color, my dream is to have programs introducing children of color to classical music. I would love to see her in performance. Her approach is so engaging and warm. Makes me want to go and pull out the ballade number three. Damn you guys every time I see a video I want to go pull out a different piece of music, lol.
Why are you primarily interested in introducing classical music to coloured children? Surely the racial bias distorts the humanistic message common to great music.
@@mouisehay930 No implication that they want to prioritise children of colour over anyone else. They only said that they would like to see more pianists of colour in media because that has a really positive impact on encouraging children of colour to get involved in the field of classical music - a predominately white field. Nothing at all problematic about what they said.
I’m never going to play this whole piece but love playing the section at 5:29, what is that beautiful sound, is accessible to us mortals. She’s right it just comes out of nowhere. To be a fly on the wall when Chopin was improvising.
What a great tutorial, her passion and deep understanding of this piece is amazing. It's a piece I've been working on for a year now, I am going to take her thoughts and suggestions into my practice and finishing of the piece!!
Maybe because you're not at that level yet? The pianists they teach are already accomplished pianists. They don't need to learn how to play notes, they need to learn how to interpret & what technique to use to achieve that goal.
Love your enthusiasm for this wonderful piece that "blew me away" as a teenager. Wish I could get the sensations it gave me then but it still gives me the tingles at 70 !
I studied this piece- in fact I played it for my senior recital. I’m blown away by your incredible teaching!!!!!! I am motivated to go back and learn again. Can’t wait for more videos from you.
Ok that was just wonderful. She did a superb job so full of music, not just the notes, she made it all come alive and really warned the heart ❤️. Thank you so much
Never closed so quickly Rachmaninov piano Concerto n.3 by Yunchan Lim. Thanks Tonebase for the constant upload of this incredibile videos, love them all 🤍🎹🎶
Guess it's because I've had horses in my life but what she says is a dance literally sounds more like being on the back of a horse ruminating and reflecting perhaps between epsodes but most people can't relate to it that way today.The chacter introduction was very astute, and I love her commiment and energy.
this is my favorite ballade. i'm so glad you did this video...i'm attempting it right now, but i know my skill level won't make it through the coda...but that isn't stopping me from trying my favorite piece. thank you!
Omg, I played this piece two years ago, still the hardest piece ive played EVER, I wish I had this video then! I still cant belive ive managed to play the highlight section, it was soo difficult.
I just heard Michelle Cann playing the Price concerto with the New World Symphony in Kravis Concert Hall, Palm Beach. To say her performance was overwhelming would be an understatement. The (usually) sedate audience leapt to its feet and Maestra Cann complied with an incredible variation on a Chopin theme for her encore. I've been learning Ballade #3 for months and each day of practice reveals more to me. Her lessons were also revelatory. Thank you!
Every time I hear Michelle speak about a piece I go, "Crap! Now I've got to start over from an entirely different perspective!" LOL The nuances and stories you bring out and your obvious joy and the poetic description as the melody unfolds is just exhilarating! I truly never thought of the fingering in that way so as to emphasize certain notes or phrases vs a smooth flow of sound. Thank You!
My recording of this ballade is on my channel, in a rather unfinished form....some note errors and such, but this video really makes me want to completely overhaul my performance of it;)
At 4:57, the reason that accenting the Fs makes it “sparkle” is that the F makes a suspended chord that demands to resolve down to E (C major). So it is tension-release all the way up the keyboard
Excellent - i see why she at curtis - this was such an interesting video. Please can she do no1 g min? She made me appreciate this piece in a new way and articulated things ive never heard before - bravo - love it
Great video. Love her passion for phrasing. Notice that Cortot's edition mentions the poem Switezianka by Adam Mickiewicz has source of inspiration (and that schould be your first lesson on this Ballade). My piano teacher told me the all story section by section from the poem to every section of the ballade, but the best thing is to read the poem by ourselves and be creative in our interpretation (i also recomend Cyprien Katsaris masterclass where he describes the all story just like i learned it)... Another thing is Chopin's pedaling in section 6:26... Unfortunatly she's not following the correct pedaling... I would say 90% of pianists ignore Chopin's pedaling of this Ballade in that same spot. At 12:31 Chopin marks sostenuto, so the tempo has to come down in this section (usually pianists play it even faster...). Thanks a lot for this video!!
Thanks for the comment! I have to recommend now that you go and watch Michelle's full course on the 3rd Ballade, because she frames the entire thing in terms of that Mickiewicz poem (which is also known as 'Undine'). I didn't include in this edit simply because it's a thread that runs through her whole course and it wasn't so easy to make it extract and synthesize! It's also worth pointing out that there's never been any definitive evidence that Chopin Ballades were inspired directly by specific Mickiewicz poems, and actually this very same poem as been associated with the Second Ballade! Also on the tonebase platform you will find Gary Graffman (another Curtis person) describing the entire legend of Lake Świteź and how it applies scene-by-scene to the Second Ballade.
@@tonebasePiano Thank you for the reply! I also have a video connecting Switezianka to the 2nd Ballade, nevertheless Cortot's edition is still the most important since it dates from 1929. There is also the book "The Polish Ballade" that addresses this issues about the 2nd and first Ballade. We can only guess... Keep up with this videos!
@@tonebasePiano I have a different take on the "program" for this piece after reading the biography of George Sand, Chopin's lover. The "Raindrop" prelude is known as a depiction of their vacation in Majorca. It features a repeated A flat/G sharp, like this Ballade. They took a donkey cart up into the mountains, like the C Major section of this Ballade. The mountain path became scary, with rock slides, as in the f minor section. They danced and partied, like the next A flat section. Chopin had nightmares, like the C sharp minor section. Then does he wake to a glorious morning? I don't know for sure, but it helps me when I play the piece.
I thought this was wonderful. In the sections that were played, the ballade sounded meaty, full-body, and meaningful. It's hard to explain, but you know it when you hear it. When the music is firing on all cylinders and makes sense. It articulates ideas. And that is exactly what I heard from this master class. @18:30 and @18:45 were a prime examples. And this brings me to another point, so many pianists are busy trying to prove a point, that they go from playing fast to it sounding like they're rushing. Here, Michelle is right on the pulse of the music and boy is it satisfying. I would love to hear her play these pieces in full. I would also love for her to unleash her magic on some Scriabin. I would love to get some recordings of her playing the first couple of sonatas and the early etudes - that would be a dream. I'm clearly a fan of her playing. Again, I go back to the point of: her playing makes sense. It is rich, engaging, interesting and I can't get enough.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
18:40 I got chills listening. She is a MASTER of the craft and knows this piece to the most intricate details, to be able to make it sound this good. Hats off.
As a Chopin fanatic I love the enthusiasm that Ms. Cann shows for Chopin and this piece in particular. Her phrasing and dynamics are beautiful, and the performance advise she gives is excellent.
I enjoy this artist’s passion and deep love and understanding of this Chopin ballade! Thank you, Tonebase, for making this amazing tutorial and all videos in your channel accessible to classical musicians world wide.
Yes! Her playing is meaningful, purposeful.
I would love to hear her analyze Ballade No. 1! More of her please!
Love this! She conveys the technical aspects of her playing and the emotional intuition of a seasoned musician. I deeply identify with her philosophy of following the music rather than needing to prove yourself. Wonderful!
What a lesson! Crying my heart out and smiling at the same time. The love she jas for this music is so infectious. Thank you everyone
she can explain while playing, epic!!
I really love her! She is absolutely musical and lyrical! Definitely talented and gifted! Bravo!
This was a wonderful treat. It is always gratifying to see another Black classical musician / teacher… particularly a pianist , my instrument . Unfortunately, we are still comparatively small in number. Again, this was an unalloyed pleasure. Please do more…
we need more of you, please.
I think it's incredible how the most subtle of nuances can change the emotion of a piece of music. What she mentioned in the very beginning about the music describing characters in a story was also quite insightful and reminds me of something I read recently: "Music is speech."
Duh it's ballade. Right there in the name.
@@jisyang8781lmao
Wow Michelle, your talent, enthusiasm and joy are so infectious to experience. You're a great teacher who so vividly conveys the idea that technique, art and emotion are all joined at the hip. Well done! 🎹
I've no words to describe how I love Mrs Michelle Cann! How expressive!!!!
Thank you for reminding me that the 3rd Ballade is my favorite and will always be.
This is spectacular teaching! Great focus on the main sections while being concise and engaging to listen to. Would love to see more from her.
What an incredible lesson, thank you Michelle and tonebase!
Michelle I can't tell you how beautifully you play this Ballade by Chopin....the way you analyze the mood and character of this dynamic composition is remarkable. The Curtis institute must be thrilled to have you as an instructor. I'm just learning of you here. I, too, am a Philadelphian and a great admirer of Chopin's music. I would love to see you in performance one day. Thank you for your masterful lesson my love ❤️🤩
This is a most BRILLIANT lesson !! Congratulations on your excellent presentation and enthusiasm. I have been a piano teacher for 45 years and I studied this work in 1983 at university. It’s a beauty! I just wish I had the opportunity to work with you on this piece. You’re so inspirational!
This lady is FANTASTIC! Brava, Madame! Brava!!!✊🏾👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
This woman is gorgeous. Pls same work on number 4!!!!!
Ms. Cann not only tells you how to execute these incredible sounds, her imaginative palette of color and sound brings everything to life in this Ballade which can sound so trite in the wrong hands. The structure is so important in this piece as in all of the Balades. Ms. Cann, how I wish that my student could study with you, but unfortunately, it's so hard to get into Curtis. I'm telling her that when the time comes, she should bring in something meaningful to her pre-screening video. Thank you!!!
Love her energy and passion towards the music. Very infectious! Wonderful insight.
My first time seeing and listening to Mrs Cann and wow very passionate about her art and her presentation was grand.
Ballade No. 3 is my favorite Chopin Ballade. From one Queen to another, thank you Michelle! 🤎
Proud of this sistah for representing. This piece brings back bad memories. My second memory slip up during a recital after fifteen years of performing.
Ms. Cann you are fabulous! Such a wonderful and joyful coach. I played this 20 years ago and I must come back to it again and take your advice to heart. No wonder that you have such an important position at Curtis. I am forever a big fan of Curtis Alumni Jorge Bolet, Samual Barber, Abbey Simon and Shura Cherkassky. Not to mention Mr. Serkin. Best Regards. Thank You for this.
I LOVE how she plays and describes everything 🥹❤️
Great lesson! She clearly loves this piece, has plenty of interesting things to say about it, and it seems to me that she has a natural affinity with the music of Chopin, the music just flows. There is a great interview with her (in two parts) at Living the Classical Life. I highly recommend it for musicians and non-musicians alike, for there are many gems in that interview!
Wonderful to see people of color in classical music. As a pianist of color, my dream is to have programs introducing children of color to classical music. I would love to see her in performance. Her approach is so engaging and warm. Makes me want to go and pull out the ballade number three. Damn you guys every time I see a video I want to go pull out a different piece of music, lol.
Better than drill music lol
Why are you primarily interested in introducing classical music to coloured children? Surely the racial bias distorts the humanistic message common to great music.
@@mouisehay930 wrong questions get wrong answers.
@@mouisehay930 No implication that they want to prioritise children of colour over anyone else. They only said that they would like to see more pianists of colour in media because that has a really positive impact on encouraging children of colour to get involved in the field of classical music - a predominately white field. Nothing at all problematic about what they said.
I totally agree! She is a great teacher & very engaging. Thanks for your wonderful comment. 😊 🎹 🌹 💐
I’m never going to play this whole piece but love playing the section at 5:29, what is that beautiful sound, is accessible to us mortals. She’s right it just comes out of nowhere. To be a fly on the wall when Chopin was improvising.
Well not totally out of nowhere. It’s like he inserted a waltz in there for kicks.
What a great tutorial, her passion and deep understanding of this piece is amazing. It's a piece I've been working on for a year now, I am going to take her thoughts and suggestions into my practice and finishing of the piece!!
Incredible thank you for making this video. She essentially made one of my favorite ballades 23 minutes long, I could rewatch this over and over.
I love her! What a great lesson! She is so articulate, conveying very clearly both technique and expression. More!
You play so beautifully! Wonderful lesson - thank you!
Prof. Cann's touch and control are incredible!
Never come across this style of teaching, it’s mind blowing 👌🏿
Maybe because you're not at that level yet? The pianists they teach are already accomplished pianists. They don't need to learn how to play notes, they need to learn how to interpret & what technique to use to achieve that goal.
@@jessevallejo8797 Ok
@@jessevallejo8797 Or maybe because Cann has a unique style of teaching?
This video is the first time to meet Ms. Cann. She is incredible. I love her, love the teaching, love the expression. Wow, just beautiful. ❤
Finally someone who understands and interprets this music properly. Alfred Cortot would have approved I think
Smokin'! I love the way she explains things.
I love her choice of words describing the progressions and developments in the music.
Love your enthusiasm for this wonderful piece that "blew me away" as a teenager.
Wish I could get the sensations it gave me then but it still gives me the tingles at 70 !
I studied this piece- in fact I played it for my senior recital. I’m blown away by your incredible teaching!!!!!! I am motivated to go back and learn again. Can’t wait for more videos from you.
It is a privilege to be able to listen to your teaching Ma'am. And your analogy of wrong peddling to hiccups is so apt!...
Ok that was just wonderful. She did a superb job so full of music, not just the notes, she made it all come alive and really warned the heart ❤️. Thank you so much
makes me wanna bring back the Ballade 3. I really do miss that piece amongst all the ballades
Never closed so quickly Rachmaninov piano Concerto n.3 by Yunchan Lim.
Thanks Tonebase for the constant upload of this incredibile videos, love them all 🤍🎹🎶
I've seen you twice in concert in Asheville! You're an absolute treat to hear and to watch. I teach piano for your sister!
Outstanding!! I love her depth of knowledge and *passion* for the music! I could listen to her all day. Thank you
I love Michelle Cann! She's a huge inspiration to me with collaborative piano 🎹🎹🎹
shes amazing. very good instructor and musician. makes me extremely excited to learn this piece.
Great teacher & magnificent skills 👏🏻 👌🏻 👍🏻 Thank you! 🌞 🌹 🎹
Inspiring and imaginative teaching!
Wow! Great playing and teaching!
Gorgeous playing, and excellent teaching.
Guess it's because I've had horses in my life but what she says is a dance literally sounds more like being on the back of a horse ruminating and reflecting perhaps between epsodes but most people can't relate to it that way today.The chacter introduction was very astute, and I love her commiment and energy.
Fantastic teaching style, and beautiful playing. I hope I can find a teacher like her!
You are such a creative and passionate individual. Thanks for your priceless instructions🌻
this is my favorite ballade. i'm so glad you did this video...i'm attempting it right now, but i know my skill level won't make it through the coda...but that isn't stopping me from trying my favorite piece. thank you!
Omg, I played this piece two years ago, still the hardest piece ive played EVER, I wish I had this video then!
I still cant belive ive managed to play the highlight section, it was soo difficult.
OMG Michelle Cann!!!! I love you, seriously amazing session and you are such a wonderful and emotive player. Wow....
I just heard Michelle Cann playing the Price concerto with the New World Symphony in Kravis Concert Hall, Palm Beach. To say her performance was overwhelming would be an understatement. The (usually) sedate audience leapt to its feet and Maestra Cann complied with an incredible variation on a Chopin theme for her encore. I've been learning Ballade #3 for months and each day of practice reveals more to me. Her lessons were also revelatory. Thank you!
What a great video, this is how all should be.
Every time I hear Michelle speak about a piece I go, "Crap! Now I've got to start over from an entirely different perspective!" LOL The nuances and stories you bring out and your obvious joy and the poetic description as the melody unfolds is just exhilarating! I truly never thought of the fingering in that way so as to emphasize certain notes or phrases vs a smooth flow of sound. Thank You!
My recording of this ballade is on my channel, in a rather unfinished form....some note errors and such, but this video really makes me want to completely overhaul my performance of it;)
23:30 "I'm not trying to prove anything to the world!" Amen!
Michelle is my new favourite teacher right after Seymore Bernstein. More of her please!
At 4:57, the reason that accenting the Fs makes it “sparkle” is that the F makes a suspended chord that demands to resolve down to E (C major). So it is tension-release all the way up the keyboard
a video on the 3rd ballade??!?!!? and on (the day after, admittedly) Chopin's birthday?????? I feel blessed, what an amazing teacher and lesson :)
Excellent - i see why she at curtis - this was such an interesting video. Please can she do no1 g min?
She made me appreciate this piece in a new way and articulated things ive never heard before - bravo - love it
Her trills 😮❤️
damn! that was awesome! Lots of stuff that us beginners can start thinking about!
This lady understands music.
Great video. Love her passion for phrasing. Notice that Cortot's edition mentions the poem Switezianka by Adam Mickiewicz has source of inspiration (and that schould be your first lesson on this Ballade). My piano teacher told me the all story section by section from the poem to every section of the ballade, but the best thing is to read the poem by ourselves and be creative in our interpretation (i also recomend Cyprien Katsaris masterclass where he describes the all story just like i learned it)... Another thing is Chopin's pedaling in section 6:26... Unfortunatly she's not following the correct pedaling... I would say 90% of pianists ignore Chopin's pedaling of this Ballade in that same spot. At 12:31 Chopin marks sostenuto, so the tempo has to come down in this section (usually pianists play it even faster...). Thanks a lot for this video!!
Thanks for the comment! I have to recommend now that you go and watch Michelle's full course on the 3rd Ballade, because she frames the entire thing in terms of that Mickiewicz poem (which is also known as 'Undine'). I didn't include in this edit simply because it's a thread that runs through her whole course and it wasn't so easy to make it extract and synthesize!
It's also worth pointing out that there's never been any definitive evidence that Chopin Ballades were inspired directly by specific Mickiewicz poems, and actually this very same poem as been associated with the Second Ballade! Also on the tonebase platform you will find Gary Graffman (another Curtis person) describing the entire legend of Lake Świteź and how it applies scene-by-scene to the Second Ballade.
@@tonebasePiano Thank you for the reply! I also have a video connecting Switezianka to the 2nd Ballade, nevertheless Cortot's edition is still the most important since it dates from 1929. There is also the book "The Polish Ballade" that addresses this issues about the 2nd and first Ballade. We can only guess... Keep up with this videos!
@@tonebasePiano I have a different take on the "program" for this piece after reading the biography of George Sand, Chopin's lover. The "Raindrop" prelude is known as a depiction of their vacation in Majorca. It features a repeated A flat/G sharp, like this Ballade. They took a donkey cart up into the mountains, like the C Major section of this Ballade. The mountain path became scary, with rock slides, as in the f minor section. They danced and partied, like the next A flat section. Chopin had nightmares, like the C sharp minor section. Then does he wake to a glorious morning? I don't know for sure, but it helps me when I play the piece.
Such beauty in your playing and spirit you bring to every note. Magnificent!
Really gets into the magic of this work. Love the camera work too. A lesson like this on the Barcarolle would be great.
What a beautiful explanation!
Great to see black classical pianist 👍
Never noticed any difference until I read your post. Listen and not watch music
This was PHENOMENAL!
What a great teacher!!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏
This Woman is Amazing 👏😍❤️🙌
Love you joyfulness. ))) Great lesson going beyond dry explanations. And right, the left hand is so important in Chopin's music. Thanks so much... )))
This video made my day, Miss Cann! THANK YOU!
Brilliant illustrations. I'm very impressed
Stunningly beautiful creation from the amazing mind of Chopin !!!
She’s very good and folks if your teacher isn’t showing you these kinds of things at the lesson , get a better teacher!! Carry on.
She's convinced me to look into this piece.
OUTSTANDING! The passion!
Thanks for this wonderful and passionable masterckass, Michele and Tonebase❤❤️👏👏
Michelle Can really play piano -so beautifully
Chopin, most elegant composer in history
Brilliant!
I thought this was wonderful. In the sections that were played, the ballade sounded meaty, full-body, and meaningful. It's hard to explain, but you know it when you hear it. When the music is firing on all cylinders and makes sense. It articulates ideas. And that is exactly what I heard from this master class. @18:30 and @18:45 were a prime examples. And this brings me to another point, so many pianists are busy trying to prove a point, that they go from playing fast to it sounding like they're rushing. Here, Michelle is right on the pulse of the music and boy is it satisfying. I would love to hear her play these pieces in full. I would also love for her to unleash her magic on some Scriabin. I would love to get some recordings of her playing the first couple of sonatas and the early etudes - that would be a dream. I'm clearly a fan of her playing. Again, I go back to the point of: her playing makes sense. It is rich, engaging, interesting and I can't get enough.
Finally, a real piano teacher.
This is fantastic.
she is so lovely!
please make also short Lessons on my favourite Chopin's 4rd Ballade -)
Great video. This is my favorite ballade as well
Chopin was a genius!!! No other opinions allowed!❤❤❤❤❤
AMAZING!
What an entry!
omg. this is incredible. in another league.