For many years Pianist Janina Fialkowksa has been a familiar presence at the Carmel Bach Festival. Her annual contribution to the Festival was a solo recital and a concerto appearance that won her the loyalty of many fans. However, in recent years the influence of concert-mistress/violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch seemed to propel Bach Festival recitals ever more firmly in the direction of period instruments, and the inevitable finally happened - the modern piano was banished from the Festival. In its place we have the modern piano's period equivalent, the "fortepiano" (the lightly strung precursor to the modern Steinway) that now plays a small, subordinate role in the Festival.
Therefore, to the delight of her fans Janina Fialkowska returned for a recital engagement on Sunday afternoon, October 4th at Sunset Center in Carmel. This event was a fundraiser for the Carmel Bach Festival and was presented as one of the events of the Carmel Performing Arts Festival that dominates the month of October on the Monterey Peninsula. The fact that there were other Festival events taking place during the weekend may explain why only a small audience of approximately 200 people attended the concert.
Fialkowska, although Canadian, has Polish ancestors and in recent years has presented recital programs that are dominated by Polish composers. Therefore it came as no surprise that her program in Carmel included music by Chopin, Witold Lutoslawski and Karol Szymanowski. The other composer represented on the program was Franz Liszt, always a favorite of Ms. Fialkowska.
The late harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick commented wryly in his biography of Domenico Scarlatti that "The age is fortunately nearly past when eighteenth-century composers were subject in concert programs to a kind of 'type casting' in which a few Scarlatti pieces, a Mozart Sonata or a Bach organ fugue were served up as well-styled appetizers to be unregretted by latecomers and to act as finger warmers and curtain raisers to the 'really expressive' music of the nineteenth century."
Interestingly enough, in her recital in Carmel, Ms. Fialkowska opened her program with the "really expressive music of the nineteenth century" and used it as finger warmers and curtain raisers to contemporary works by Lutoslawski and Szymanowski. The opening works by Chopin, the E-flat Minor Polonaise, the A-flat Major Impromptu and the F Major Ballade, received rushed, perfunctory performances, most probably a result of that old familiar affliction "concert jitters." But, with the Two Etudes (1941) by Lutoslawski Ms. Fialkowska emerged as a commanding presence at the keyboard. We didn't have to be told how hard these works are to perform to know that they are full of thorny difficulties. Swirling clusters of fast moving notes and chords in perpetual motion frenzy characterized these etudes. They were dazzling, and it would be impossible to imagine a better performance
The Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, Op. 10, by Karol Szymanowski that followed also received a superb performance, although it has to be said that this seventeen-minute work suffers from an uninteresting theme and a series of variations that outstay their welcome. However, Ms. Fialkowska found selected variations that charmed us with some lovely impressionistic and expressive playing.
After intermission we heard the Liszt portion of the program consisting of
Wilde Jagd from the
Etudes d'execution transcendante, the
Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude from the
Harmonies poétiques et religieueses , the
Valse impromptu and the
Venezia e Napoli which contains that perennial warhorse the
Tarantella.
Ms. Fialkowska has a tendency to play fast works too fast and too loud. Thus the
Wilde Jagd lost much of its effectiveness in a mad scramble to play the piece
prestissimo as did the
Tarantella of the
Venezia e Napoli . However, the
Valse Impromptu achieved a fleet and charming performance, and the real crown jewel of the afternoon's recital was a superb, masterful performance of
Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude. This was artistic playing on the highest level. It was full of rich detail, skillful shaping of phrases, fantastic control of some difficult textures and an easy virtuosity that never needed to show off, but instead served a higher musical purpose.
The
Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude is by no means everyone's favorite work by Liszt. In the wrong hands its 16-minute length can seem interminable. But, under the magic fingers of Janina Fialkowska we were transported into a mystical experience where time was suspended. Brava!
An enthusiastic audience was rewarded with one encore, Mendelssohn's "Spinning Song."
End
