The Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 is a ballade for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin, completed in 1842 in Paris. It is commonly considered one of Chopin's masterpieces, and one of the masterpieces of 19th-century piano music. Of the four ballades, it is considered by many pianists to be the most difficult, both technically and musically. It is also the longest, taking around ten to twelve minutes to perform. According to John Ogdon, it is "the most exalted, intense and sublimely powerful of all Chopin's compositions... It is unbelievable that it lasts only twelve minutes, for it contains the experience of a lifetime." History The circumstances of composition are poorly documented, though it appears that Chopin began composing shortly after the completion of Ballade No. 3. By December 1842, the ballade was finished, and he offered it for sale to Breitkopf & Härtel, along with the Heroic Polonaise and the fourth Scherzo. The work was dedicated to Baroness Rothschild, wife of Nathaniel de Rothschild, who had invited Chopin to play in her Parisian residence, where she introduced him to the aristocracy and nobility. In the preface to his edition of Chopin's ballades, Alfred Cortot claims that the inspiration for this ballade is Adam Mickiewicz's poem The Three Budrys, which tells of three brothers sent away by their father to seek treasures, and the story of their return with three Polish brides. Structure A phrase in the dominant major (marked piano) opens the seven introductory bars and leads into the first subject of sonata-form exposition, a melody with Slavonic coloration. The first theme undergoes four cumulative transformations with decorations, counter-melodies, counterpoint, and a nocturne-like fioritura. The development of the second theme and its intertwining with the first heightens the complexity of the musical structure and builds tension. Through the intertwining and thus the simultaneous development of the two themes, Chopin effectively combines the use of both the sonata form and the variation form. The body of the piece concludes with a series of accented fortissimo chords, followed by a momentary calm of five pianissimo chords. This then suddenly leads into an extremely fast, turbulent coda, written in exuberant counterpoint. Structurally, Ballade No. 4 is decidedly intricate. Musical analysis A distinguishing feature of the fourth ballade is its contrapuntal nature. Counterpoint is found only sporadically in Ballades Nos. 1 and 2. The fourth ballade is musically more subtle than