01. Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante en Mi Bémol Majeur, Op. 22
02. Fantaisie-impromptu en Do Dièse Mineur, Op. 66
03. Ballade No. 1 en Sol Mineur, Op. 23
04. Valse No. 3 en La Mineur, Op. 34
05. Ballade No. 2 en Fa Majeur, Op. 38
06. Ballade No. 3 en La Bémol Majeur, Op. 47
07. Nocturne No. 13 en Do Mineur, Op. 48
08. Ballade No. 4 en Fa Mineur, Op. 52
09. Nocturne No. 4 en Fa Majeur, Op. 15
10. étude No. 3 en Mi Majeur, Op. 10

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’.