Chopin wrote this ballade under the direct inspiration of Adam Mickiewicz's "Le Lac de Willis."

Niekcs wrote "The second Ballade possesses beauties in no way inferior to those of the first," he continues. "What can be finer than the simple strains of the opening section! They sound as if they had been drawn from the people's store-house of song. The entrance of the presto surprises, and seems out of keeping with what precedes; but what we hear after the return of tempo primo--the development of those simple strains, or rather the cogitations on them--justifies the presence of the presto. The second appearance of the latter leads to an urging, restless coda in A minor, which closes in the same key and pianissimo with a few bars of the simple, serene, now veiled first strain."

Chopin in letter to Fontana, dated Palma, December 14, 1838: "I think that shortly I shall be able to send you my Preludes and my Ballade. Go and see Leo; do not mention that I am ill, he would fear for his 1,000 francs."

Rubinstein bore great love for this second Ballade. This is what it meant for him: "Is it possible that the interpreter does not feel the necessity of representing to his audience--a field flower caught by a gust of wind, a caressing of the flower by the wind; the resistance of the flower, the stormy struggle of the wind; the entreaty of the flower, which at last lies there broken; and paraphrased--the field flower a rustic maiden, the wind a knight."