Album

Faina Lushtak has recorded approximately half of Chopin's mazurkas for this disc, and no matter whether they are marked Lento or Vivace, she plays them in a comfortable manner, letting the music take her where it will, as any breeze would the willow trees on the cover. Her graceful sound and whimiscal way of playing with tempo makes them more dreamy than dance-like. She also plays with meter, as in the first Mazurka, Op. 6/1, where the beginning figure of the theme is written out as a triplet, two eighth-notes, dotted eighth-note, and sixteenth-note, but she plays it more as a dotted sextuplet, sixteenth-note. She doesn't let the music be totally stretched out of shape metrically or emotionally, but gently nudges it as she feels appropriate. The grander mazurkas, such as Op. 30/3, or Op. 63/1, are much more energetic, more obviously mazurkas in their rhythms, but still have a quality of being perfect for an improvisational ballet class. An excellent balance, not being too deeply rich or too ringing for these light works, also marks the recording. Lushtak's idyllic way with these is probably not to everyone's taste, but it does make for a pleasantly relaxing hour of listening.

© Patsy Morita, Rovi

CD 1
Frédéric François Chopin Composer 4 Mazurkas, Op.6 Work 8:39 Faina Lushtak Piano
1	No.1 in F#-	3:27			$0.99
2	No.2 in C#-	2:22			$0.99
3	No.3 in E	1:50			$0.99
4	No.4 in Eb-	1:00			$0.99
Frédéric François Chopin Composer 4 Mazurkas, Op.17 Work 14:25 Faina Lushtak Piano
5	1.No.1 in Bb	2:19			$0.99
6	2.No.2 in E-	2:18			$0.99
7	3.No.3 in Ab	4:58			$0.99
8	4.No.4 in A-	4:50			$0.99
Frédéric François Chopin Composer 4 Mazurkas, Op.24 Work 12:34 Faina Lushtak Piano
9	No.1 in G-	3:11			$0.99
10	No.2 in C	2:14			$0.99
11	No.3 in Ab	1:47			$0.99
12	No.4 in Bb-	5:22			$0.99
Frédéric François Chopin Composer 4 Mazurkas, Op.30 Work 10:12 Faina Lushtak Piano
13	No.1 in C-	1:44			$0.99
14	No.2 in B-	1:24			$0.99
15	No.3 in Db	2:56			$0.99
16	No.4 in C#-	4:08			$0.99
Frédéric François Chopin Composer 3 Mazurkas, Op.50 Work 11:23 Faina Lushtak Piano
17	No.1 in G	2:14			$0.99
18	No.2 in Ab	3:06			$0.99
19	No.3 in C#-	6:03			$0.99
Frédéric François Chopin Composer 3 Mazurkas, Op.63 Work 6:26 Faina Lushtak Piano
20	No.1 in B	2:08			$0.99
21	No.2 in F-	2:02			$0.99
22	No.3 in C#-	2:16			$0.99
Frédéric François Chopin Composer 4 Mazurkas, Op.68 Work 9:15 Faina Lushtak Piano
23	No.1 in C	1:40			$0.99
24	No.2 in A-	3:23			$0.99
25	No.3 in F	2:08			$0.99
26	No.4 in F-	2:04			$0.99