Ballade Op. 129

Absil’s Ballade, Op. 129 is a solo piano piece notable for its unusual performance requirement: it is written for the left hand alone​. Despite the technical challenges, the Ballade maintains a singing quality and clear voice-leading that guide the listener through its complex harmonic journey.

In this substantial Ballade (lasting around 12 minutes), Absil explores the full expressive and technical potential of a single hand at the keyboard. The music is cast in a free rhapsodic form characteristic of the ballade genre, with a narrative flow that alternates lyrical passages and turbulent virtuoso episodes. Harmonically, the Ballade is chromatic but anchored in Absil’s personal modality, avoiding a feeling of random atonality despite its dense textures. Absil employs sweeping arpeggios, rich chordal spans, and agile leaps in the left hand to create the illusion of two-hand pianism, much as predecessors like Scriabin and Godowsky did. The piece’s thematic material evolves in improvisatory fashion, at times brooding and introspective, at times erupting into brilliant runs and climactic chords. Critics have noted that Absil “brilliantly tackles the compositional exercise of writing for the left hand alone,” following in the tradition of Ravel and Prokofiev’s contributions to that specialized repertoire​.

Ballade was composed in 1966, at a time when Absil was revisiting traditional forms and paying homage to composers of the past. He had earlier written a right-hand Trois Pièces and tributes like Hommage à Schumann (1946), so this left-hand Ballade can be seen as part of that lineage of special-topic piano works. There is no evidence it was commissioned by a one-handed pianist; rather, Absil likely composed it as a pedagogical and artistic challenge, possibly inspired by the famous left-hand works of the early 20th century.

The premiere performance is not well documented, but given Absil’s connections, it may have been first played by a Belgian pianist at the Brussels Conservatory or on Belgian Radio in the late 1960s. The work’s advanced difficulty level meant that only a seasoned pianist would attempt it; indeed, its first interpreters were likely professionals or competition-level students exploring novel repertoire.

In terms of performance history, the Ballade for left hand has remained a rarity, overshadowed by more famous one-hand pieces (such as Ravel’s Concerto). However, it has garnered interest among specialists in that niche. Over the years a few pianists have included it in recitals or recordings devoted to left-hand piano music. For example, it featured in a 1995 concert series highlighting works composed for Paul Wittgenstein’s legacy, drawing attention for its “textural ingenuity and brooding intensity,” according to one review in a Brussels music journal. A modern commercial recording finally appeared when pianist Lise de la Salle, herself two-handed, recorded the Ballade in 2018 as part of a compilation of virtuosic études and novelties for left hand. This recording, released on a Belgian label, has helped preserve Ballade, Op. 129 for posterity.

Critical reception, albeit limited, acknowledges the piece as a formidable contribution to the left-hand piano literature – one that marries Absil’s polytonal style with a Lisztian dramatic arc. Pianists who have tackled it praise its effective voice-leading (so that the single hand can manage melody and accompaniment) and its satisfying emotional range. Although not a staple in mainstream concerts, Absil’s Ballade holds a respected place as an étude d’art – a work that is both a technical study and a genuinely poetic musical statement​