HN867
When Chopin gave his, Op. 23 the title "Ballade" in the mid 1830s, he established the piano ballade as a new musical genre which was subsequently taken up by others, including Brahms, Liszt and Grieg. The idea of transforming a fictional, dramatic and mystical event into music particularly suggested itself to the Romantic Schumann. He was enthusiastic about this work: "I have a new Ballade by Chopin. It seems to me to be one of his most brilliant (not most inspired) works."