Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Fantaisie en fa mineur, op. 49
Ballade en fa mineur, op 52
Valse en do dièse mineur, op. 64 n° 2
Scherzo en mi majeur, op. 54
Polonaise en la bémol majeur, op. 53
Mazurka en sol majeur, op. 50 n° 1
Mazurka en la bémol majeur, op. 50 n° 2
Mazurka en do dièse mineur, op. 50 n° 3
Nocturne en ré bémol majeur, op. 27 n° 2
Nocturne en mi majeur, op. 62 n° 2

Nikolai Lugansky, piano

Chopin recital by the extraordinarily gifted young Nikolaj Lugansky. To the exclusion of the Nocturne op. 27/2, the works on this recording were written in the years between 1841 and 1847, the ‘George Sand chapter’ in the Chopin biography. Chopin met the writer in the fall of 1836 at the Countess Marie d’Agoult’s. Smoking sigars and often dressed as a man, Sand immediately roused Chopin’s aversion: “What an antipathetic person this Sand is! I doubt if she is a woman at all.” She, on the contrary, was fascinated by “that poor, sad angel” and slowly succeeded in winning him over. The famous journey to Mallorca, where Chopin composed his Préludes, was the final step. From then on Sand and Chopin were inseparable.