After her widely acclaimed first Haydn recording, the Israeli pianist Yaara Tal, known as one half of the unique international piano duo Tal & Groethuysen, is now presenting her second solo album. The dance theme of her new CD, Polonaise, is reflected in the dance-like works of the Austrian composer, piano virtuoso, and son of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Xaver Mozart (1791–1844) and his famous Polish contemporary Frédéric Chopin. Originally a Polish national dance danced both in rural settings as well as at court, in the 18th century the polonaise increasingly established itself in the courts of Europe’s nobility, and reached its high point in, among others, the famous polonaises of Frédéric Chopin. For her new album Yaara Tal chose three rarely recorded early works of the composer: the Polonaise in A-flat major KK IVa No. 2 (1821), B-flat minor KK IVa No. 5 (1826), and G-flat major KK IVa No. 8 (1829) and combined them with polonaises by Franz Xaver Mozart: the 6 Polonaises mélancoliques op. 17 and 4 Polonaises mélancoliques op. 22.”