Hisako Kawamura - Chopin: 24 Préludes & Polonaise-Fantaisie (2018) [Hi-Res]

In 24 Preludes op. 28, Chopin’s classicist side governs the work’s unified key structure with the pieces arranged in pairs ofmajor and minor keys ascending in intervals of a fifth. Chopin as teacher prevails in how nearly each Prelude either addresses a particular technical challenge or is constructed according to a specific textural agenda. A Romantic sensibility lies at the heart of the music’s diversity of moods, brash declamatory gestures and frequent harmonic sleights-of-hand, yet, Chopin being Chopin, it is controlled Romanticism, and strikingly original at every turn.

Completed and published in 1846, Polonaise-Fantaisieop. 61 appears to have been first conceived as a fantasy, only for Chopin to add the polonaise rhythm underlining the main theme as an afterthought. Its improvisatory aura belies the arduous journey between the composer’s preliminary sketches and final manuscript. The five themes expand, contract, and transform with more rigor than one might glean from casual listening, while the contrapuntal proclivity and harmonic daring that characterize Chopin’s last compositions operate at full tilt.

Between these profound music, Fantaisie-Impromptu op. 66, one of the most famous solo pieces by Chopin, deeply heartfelt three Mazurkas op. 59 from Chopin’s late years, and a mysterious Fugue in A Minor, Chopin’s rare attempt into this format areinserted.