This week in details: Chopin's 4th Ballade and Michelangelo's Moses

A gift which keeps on giving: Extract from Chopin's 4th Ballade [Schlesinger edition]

Chopin was not one to waste a single beat of passagework or ornamentation, but sometimes, caught up in the sweeping narrative, you forget exactly how well-crafted his work is. Played, and truly appreciated, this little transitory passage from Op 52 for the first time today, and it's stupidly beautiful. Ascending in bright A major arpeggios but revealing D minor in the haunting descent, it's a little hill of a journey in itself.

But yeah, it's a crying shame that pianists often rush through Chopin's little flourishes, given the care that has gone into designing them. Highly recommend exploring them slowly if you learn his pieces, and experimenting with different note groupings.

Apropos of genius attention to detail: learnt this week that there's a little muscle in our arm which only contracts when we lift our little finger. Michelangelo's famous statue of Moses is lifting his pinkie, so you can see that little muscle contracting in his arm. Incredible stuff.