Album DescriptionThis new 72-minute CD features Russian pianist Vassily Primakov performing Chopin's most beloved piano works, including the Fantaisie in F minor, Barcarolle, Scherzo in C-sharp minor, Berceuse, and all four Ballades. Frédéric Chopin?s compositions, full of moonbeams and longing, sweeping passion and revolutionary outburst, are among the favorite literature of all pianists today. Of his four compositions in the fantasy form, the Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49, is one of his highest achievements, moving from start to finish through a relentless course of drama and dreams. Some have called it his "fifth Ballade" for its musical narrative and melodic flow. Among Chopin's most imaginative (and popular) works are the beautiful Berceuse, the composer's only lullaby, and the stunning Barcarolle, with its rocking rhythms and hints of the splendors of old Venice. The Barcarolle has also been called the "sixth Ballade" for its rich complexity of musical invention and harmonic development. Chopin's four ballades are rooted in the musical form of an old story (stanza) and refrain, a "sung narration" that in the case of his particular compositions has given rise to various programmatic tales about each piece. Chopin's scherzos, also four in all, include the stormy C-sharp minor Scherzo, Op. 39, full of anger, protest and fighting spirit. Composed in 1839 during the composer's miserable stay on the island of Majorca with George Sand, this work is also interlaced with zal, an almost untranslatable Polish word meaning "sorrow," and is also, according to Huneker, a subtle quality that is "ironical, sad, sweet, joyous, morbid, sour, sane and dreamy." In the final analysis, zal permeated all of Chopin's music, his life as well as his death, after which his heart was removed and buried in Poland, while his precious silver urn of Polish earth was buried with his body in Paris. "Poland, Poland," wrote the French music essayist Georges Jean-Aubry, "how many nights has he held her to his heart."
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1