Watch 2013 Van Cliburn Competition gold medalist Vadym Kholodenko perform celebrated Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's 'Ballade' for solo piano, composed in 2005 for Emanuel Ax. Saariaho describes the intention behind her composition as follows: "In this short piece I wanted to write music with a melody that grows out of the texture before descending into it again; a work that constantly shifts from a complex, multi-layered texture to concentrated single lines and back again."