Chopin Polish Songs

On her first Warner Classics album pianist Mariam Batsashvili combines solo works by Franz Liszt – a figure of special significance for her – and his contemporary Frédéric Chopin. She left her native Georgia to study at the Franz Liszt Conservatory in Weimar and gained international recognition in 2014 when she won the 10th Franz Liszt Piano Competition. Chopin was just a year older than Liszt and the two became good friends in Paris. The two pianist-composers are, as Batsashvili explains, “very, very different in the way they express themselves, but I can hear in their music that they respected each other greatly.”

This 17-CD set presents the complete works by Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849): the piano solo works, the works for piano & orchestra, chamber music and songs. Chopin is one of the most popular and universally best loved composers of all times. The piano works of the Polish master touch the heart chords of every listener and music lover around the world, they speak the universal language of beauty, melancholy, tenderness and passion.

The master of the piano must surely be Frédéric Chopin. Every one of his compositions includes the piano in some form, yet within his oeuvre there is still an exciting variety of music to be found. Chopin made the solo piano form into an art, extensively developing various styles – including the piano sonata, waltz, polonaise and impromptu – and heavily popularising others for the first time, such as the Polish mazurka, the form he often chose to express his nationalism.