The series of the four ballades and four scherzos run parallel in chronological terms and gain much from being set side by side.
Such juxtaposition in performance enables us to go beyond their specificities (the more narrative tone of the ballades, the more transcendental virtuosity of the scherzos) and underlines their similarities: the ambitious recasting of existing forms and the emotional richness but also the pessimism common to the First Scherzo and the First Ballade, or the stylistic accomplishment in the Fourth Scherzo and the Fourth Ballade.