The Ballade in A Minor, Op. 33 was composed in 1898, when Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was 23 years old. Filled with youthful emotion and power, it gave the composer early recognition by publisher August Jaeger when he described the piece as “genius”. The one movement piece echoes the Romantic symphonic styles of Tchaikovsky and Dvořák , and it is full of ravishing and lush melodic moments.