Deeper than mere melancholy, "żal" is that uniquely Polish sense of sadness for things irretrievably lost that forms the soul of Chopin's lyrical genius. His compositions, at times both ineffably sad and gloriously uplifting, draw their emotional depth and complexity from his Polish homeland.

Born in 1810, Chopin was the son of an expatriate French father and a Polish mother. Their union blended diverse traditions from two countries that were almost historical opposites: France, a nation that had long been one of Europe's dominant powers; and Poland, long the battlefield where foreign armies fought for supremacy. It was in this milieu that the young prodigy was raised and developed the sensibilities and emotion with which he would revolutionize the modern piano.

Very much a child of Poland, Chopin grew up listening to the folk music that would shape his creativity. His mazurkas are an ode to both the Polish dance and to Polish culture in general. Powerful symbols of his Polish heritage, Chopin's mazurkas span his creative lifetime, the first composed as a prodigy in his homeland; the last while in self-imposed exile in France, the land of his father.

When Chopin emigrated to France at age 19, the piano was just evolving into its modern form, and Paris was the center of that evolution. After the young composer's arrival, Paris became the hub of a musical revolution as well. Chopin was a harmonic genius who turned the established order on its head, a virtuoso who commandeered the piano's vocal range of lyric possibility.

Chopin's Preludes are 24 standalone pieces, each composed in a different key. They are both a radical departure from and an homage to the 24 Preludes of Bach. But instead of introducing a larger composition, or sharing a common musical theme or style, each Chopin prelude is a complete work unto itself. Despite their brevity, they are equally adroit as expressions of profound emotion.

With his etudes, Chopin transformed what had been short practice pieces written to develop technical proficiency into a musical genre of their own. The "Harp" Etude on this disc is a lyrical study of longing and hope. This emotional polarity is exemplified in the Funeral March, which evokes anguish, redemption and despair, in contrast to the sunny Barcarolle, which sings of Venice and the rhythmic rocking of the gondolier.

Pamela Howland performs these iconic works with a mastery of technique in the service of żal, plumbing that most Polish of emotions to understand the life and longing, the passion and purpose, which defined Chopin's music and the homeland of his soul. This disc, recorded after Howland returned from her first visit to Poland, is dedicated to her great grandmother Pauline Drewitz, who emigrated to America from a town very close to where Chopin himself was born.