’Heroic hymns of battle’ was how the American critic James Huneker visualized Chopin’s polonaises. ‘In them’, Liszt wrote evocatively in his Life of Chopin, ‘are to be found embodied the noblest traditional feelings of the Poland of a bygone age; through them breathe the stern resolve and the reflective gravity of the Poles of other days. Usually of a warlike character, bravery and valour are in these polonaises rendered with a simplicity of expression which was a distinctive characteristic of this warlike people. They bring before the imagination with vivid intensity the ancient Poles as they are described in their chronicles.’