The Koroliov Series, Vol. 11

Featuring

Evgeni Koroliov
Frédéric Chopin

Did you know?

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Composition History

Chopin composed Mazurkas throughout his life, with the final musical ideas he sketched on his deathbed being for a Mazurka in F minor (Op. 68 No. 4).

Compositional Technique

Chopin's Mazurkas often feature a dotted rhythm (long-short-long), can use a fluid triplet or a group of two, and may lack the expected emphasis on the first beat, often shifting weight to the second or third beat.

Interpretation

Chopin himself instructed his pupils that the left hand should act as the 'Kapellmeister' (conductor), maintaining strict rhythm, while the right hand was free to play as desired, demonstrating the art of rubato.

Performer Biography

Evgeni Koroliov, the pianist on this album, won numerous international prizes, including the Leipzig Bach Competition in 1968 and the Van Cliburn in 1973.

Composer Biography

A long-standing error in Chopin literature, claiming the Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17 No. 4, was written by a 14-year-old, was corrected by Tadeusz Zielinski's biography; it was actually composed during Chopin's Paris period.

Composer Biography

As a boy, Fryderyk Chopin spent two summer holidays in Szafarnia, a rural village near Warsaw, where he immersed himself in Masovian and Jewish folklore, even playing the one-stringed bass with local musicians.

Cultural Impact

Chopin's heart, at his own request, was brought back to Poland after his death in Paris and is interred in a pillar in the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw.