|
Voices of the Press
|
The National Post Toronto (Sept. 2001)
Janina Fialkowska has always been one of the few pianists who makes me like – sometimes even love – Franz Liszt. The Canadian-born pianist is also one of those rare musicians who, in the age of digital micro-editing, makes on-the-edge- recordings that capture much of the spontaneity and risk-taking of her live performances. And Fialkowska is in full flight in this new recording …
… she goes straight for the poetic heart of the pieces, in open-hearted, fresh and emotionally charged performances that are so free of gratuitous bombast, excessive sentimentality or virtuosic posturing that they will win over even the most hardened Lisztophobe.
… highlight of the season …
|
La Scena Musicale, (December 2001)
D’une virtuosité électrisante tout au long du disque … une remarquable netteté des couleurs sonores ; ainsi qu’une prodigieuse faculté d’adaptation aux atmosphère changeantes de ces études … Pour Arthur Rubinstein, entendre Janina Fialkowska fut une révélation … Après écoute, on peut très bien comprendre, à plus d’un égard, l’enthousiasme de Rubinstein.
|
International Record Review (December 2001)
Janina Fialkowska is a formidable pianist, as indeed one must to be tackle Liszt’s most formidable work … Her technical brilliance is combined with an engaging musical flair and a feeling for colour and drama of the sort absolutely required in this of all music … She gives one of the most colourful and idiomatic traversals of recent years.
|
American Record Guide (Nov. / Dec. 2001)
Fialkowska performs the Etudes with immense bravura, speed, richness of hues. A devil-take-the-hindmost attitude in the fast pieces, as well as the cliff-hanger quality in many of the most challenging passages, contribute to the electricity and excitement in her performances …
… Fialkowska, like her mentor Rubinstein, never once produces an ugly, abrasive sound … exquisite coloring, expression, and rapt musicality … An important and excellent new release …
|