Joanna MacGregor - The Complete Chopin Mazurkas (2017)

Celebrated pianist Joanna MacGregor releases the complete Chopin mazurkas on her own SoundCircus label. Schumann called Chopin's mazurkas "canons buried in flowers", a synthesis of Polish folk culture, nostalgia, poetry and political defiance. Performed chronologically they portray a subtle and confessional diary of a transcendent, innovative composer. A lifetime's study for any pianist, Joanna MacGregor peels back the layers of one of the greatest collections of piano literature. For Joanna, this has been a very personal journey: "I've loved Chopin's mazurkas since childhood; I can think of no other collection that reveals a composer so intimately. Soulful, witty, and often dramatic, they can be experienced in a multiplicity of ways: as a diary of Chopin's life; as his laboratory for compositional ideas; as a testimony to Polish culture, and his elegant improvisation." Recorded in the Britten Theatre at Snape Maltings, Joanna will also perform them in their entirety at the Wigmore Hall on 12 May 2017. "I've taken the simple decision to record and perform all fifty-seven in order of composition, and to follow the intense unfolding of a composer returning to the same place again and again: from Chopin's first mazurka to his last." As a student, Joanna clearly recalls hearing Horowitz perform in London in 1982: "I slept outside the Royal Festival Hall to be sure of getting a ticket. Of all the pieces he played at his recital, the miraculous Op.17 No.4 is the most vivid memory. Chopin's porous, unresolved fluidity in these works has inspired so pianists; his mazurkas a witness to human vulnerability and longing." Personnel: Joanna MacGregor (piano).

Tracklist:

01. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurka in D Major, Op. A1 No. 1, B. 31 "Mazurek"
02. Joanna MacGregor - 2 Mazurkas, B. 16, No. 1 in G Major "Prague"
03. Joanna MacGregor - 2 Mazurkas, B. 16, No. 2 in B-Flat Major
04. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurkas, Op. 68, No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 68
05. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurkas, Op. 68, No. 1 in C Major, Op. 68
06. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurkas, Op. 68, No. 3 in F Major, Op. 68
07. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 6: No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor
08. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 6: No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor
09. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 6: No. 3 in E Major
10. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 6: No. 4 in E-Flat Minor
11. Joanna MacGregor - Five Mazurkas, Op. 7: No. 1 in B-Flat Major
12. Joanna MacGregor - Five Mazurkas, Op. 7: No. 2 in A Minor
13. Joanna MacGregor - Five Mazurkas, Op. 7: No. 3 in F Minor
14. Joanna MacGregor - Five Mazurkas, Op. 7: No. 4 in A-Flat Major
15. Joanna MacGregor - Five Mazurkas, Op. 7: No. 5 in F Major
16. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurka in B-Flat Major, KK IV No. 1
17. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 17: No. 1 in B-Flat Major
18. Joanna MacGregor - Five Mazurkas, Op. 17: No. 2 in E Minor
19. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 17: No. 3 in A-Flat Major
20. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 17: No. 4 in A Minor
21. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurka in C Major, KK IVb
22. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurka in A-Flat Major, KK IVb "Szymanowska"
23. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 24: No. 1 in G Minor
24. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 24: No. 2 in C Major
25. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 24: No. 3 in A-Flat Major
26. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 24: No. 4 in B-Flat Minor
27. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurka in G Major, Op. 67: No. 1
28. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurka in C Major, Op. 67: No. 3
29. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 30: No. 1 in C Minor
30. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 30: No. 2 in B Minor
31. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 30: No. 3 in D-Flat Major
32. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 30: No. 4 in C-Sharp Minor
33. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 33: No. 1 in G-Sharp Minor
34. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 33: No. 2 in D Major
35. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 33: No. 3 in C Major
36. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 33: No. 4 in B Minor
37. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 41: No. 1 in A Minor
38. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 41: No. 2 in B Major
39. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 41: No. 3 in A-Flat Major
40. Joanna MacGregor - Four Mazurkas, Op. 41: No. 4 in C-Sharp Minor
41. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurka, KK IIb "Notre Temps": No. 4 in A Minor
42. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurka, KK IIb "A son ami Emile Galliard": No. 5 in A Minor
43. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 50: No. 1 in G Major
44. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 50: No. 2 in A-Flat Major
45. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 50: No. 3 in C-Sharp Minor
46. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 56: No. 1 in B Major
47. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 56: No. 2 in C Major
48. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 56: No. 3 in C Minor
49. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 59: No. 1 in A Minor
50. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 59: No. 2 in A-Flat Major
51. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 59: No. 3 in F-Sharp Minor
52. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 63: No. 1 in B Major
53. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 63: No. 2 in F Minor
54. Joanna MacGregor - Three Mazurkas, Op. 63: No. 3 in C-Sharp Minor
55. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurka, Op. 67: No. 4 in A Minor
56. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurka, Op. 67: No. 2 in G Minor
57. Joanna MacGregor - Mazurka, Op. 68: No. 4 in F Minor