Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937)
"Métopes", op. 29
"Masques", op. 34

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Ballade n° 1 en sol mineur, op. 23
Ballade n° 2 en fa majeur, op. 38
Ballade n° 3 en la bémol majeur, op. 47
Ballade n° 4 en fa mineur, op. 52

Justyna Gabzdyl, piano

Chopin’s Ballades are not a closed cycle; they were created in different time and circumstances; moreover, no recommendations of the composer indicating their joint performance have been found. However, listening to them one after another is an extraordinary experience – the history of the artist’s life, told with his most intimate musical language, reflecting the entire wealth and experience of his short, yet uncommonly fruitful life. None of Chopin’s composition exceeds his ballads, neither in the mastery of the form nor in the beauty of the poetry.Karol Szymanowski, considered as the most outstanding Polish composer after Chopin, opened a new period of his works with Metopes and slightly later Masques, irrevocably departing from the neo-romantic stylistics to his own unique musical language, immersed both in universal European cultural roots and in Polish musical idioms. The double CD by Justyna Gabzdyl, a Polish pianist living in Canada, consists of very subjective, yet remarkably accurate, synthetic selection of what is most interesting in the Polish piano music, and perhaps the most characteristic.