Chopin: Autour des Ballades - Kotaro Fukuma

After his trip to Spain (Iberia by Isaac Albéniz) and his Russian promenades in the path of the Pictures from an Exhibition (by Modest Moussorgsky), Kotaro Fukuma is travelling with Frédéric Chopin in the heart of European music. In France, Chopin's soul sings with a poetry which goes beyond all borders (Grande Polonaise Brillante). His Four Ballades, composed in Vienna and Paris, express alternating sentiments, an 'Odyssey of Chopin's soul', as Liszt expressed it (N°1): sadness, anxiety, dreaminess, serenity, elation, always enrobed in beautiul and original harmonic modulations. The universality of the sentiments expressed by the power of his art gives Chopin's music an unsurpassable force. It is a challenge to his interpreters to reveal this. Kotaro Fukuma has taken up this challenge in his album 'Autour des Ballades'.

Frédéric Chopin
1.    Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante en Mi Bémol Majeur op. 22    14'04
2.    Fantaisie-impromptu en Do Dièse Mineur op. 66    4'56
3.    Ballade No.1 en Sol Mineur op. 23    9'36
4.    Valse No. 3 en La Mineur op. 34    6'04
5.    Ballade No.2 en Fa Majeur op. 38    7'47
6.    Ballade No.3 en La Bémol Majeur op. 47    7'23
7.    Nocturne No.13 en Do Mineur op. 48    6'05
8.    Ballade No.4 en Fa Mineur op. 52    11'28
9.    Nocturne No. 4 en Fa Majeur op. 15    4'08
10.    Etude No.3 en Mi Majeur op. 10    4'23