Both Chopin Concertos with the Vancouver Symphony under Bramwell Tovey

Pianist Janina Fialkowska a supreme interpreter of Frédéric Chopin Fialkowska, who studied under one of history’s most perceptive Chopin musicians, Arthur Rubinstein, played magically. Many players exaggerate Chopin’s rubato, that little theft of time so important to his music, but Fialkowska didn’t. She made the music sound as natural as it should be, evoking the playing of the excellent pianist Dang Thai Son.

Fialkowska’s interpretation had the coruscations we expect of Chopin’s highly decorative writing, a real sense of elegance, and in the languid slow movements, a feeling of the operatic composer Chopin so revered, Vincenzo Bellini.

Lloyd Dykk, straight.com (Vancouver's online source for news, arts, entertainment, culture and lifestyle), March 8, 2010