Ignacy Jan Paderewski - Piano Concerto; Polish Fantasy (Janina Fialkowska; Antoni Wit)

Information

Composer: Ignacy Jan Paderewski

• (01) Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17
• (04) Fantaisie polonaise sur des thèmes originaux, Op. 19
• (05) Overture

Janina Fialkowska, piano
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Antoni Wit, conductor

Date: 1999
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.554020

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Review

Since her early days as a Rubinstein protegee, Fialkowska has developed ever more dazzling relish and brio

It seems only a short while since I reviewed another recording of Paderewski Piano Concerto and Polish Fantasy, sufficiently endearing and popular show pieces to justify David Doughty's claim, in his excellent notes, that 'they still hold a place on the edge of the pianist's repertory today. 'Lovers of the Grieg and, at a lower level of inspiration, the Anton Rubinstein piano concertos, need look no further for easily digested passions and confidences and, in the Polish Fantasy, for flamboyant, ethnic, Lisztian colouring.

Since her early fraught career as a protegee of Artur Rubinstein, the Polish-Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska has broadened her style, and her performances of both works are as affectionate as they are masterly. Here the considerable qualities that marked her first Chopin and Liszt RCA discs (RL37071 and FRL10142 respectively - nla) are extended into an altogether more dazzling relish and brio, even a touch of dare-devilry. She plays the Piano Concerto's second subject with a special sense of its intimacy and spins off Paderewski's icing-sugar figuration with an open-hearted delight in its sparkle and charm. The cadenza in particular is unfurled with great brilliance and the sort of improvisatory flair that in the past sometimes eluded her, and the final sprints of both works are given with a genuine rush of adrenalin.

Such enthusiasm is infectious, and Fialkowska is excellently partnered by her orchestra and conductor. So although I would never want to be without Earl Wild's coruscating Elan recording of the Piano Concerto, Fialkowska's quality, shining through Naxos's unrealistically close sound, is sufficiently ebullient and individual to sweep aside all possible accusations of dilute romanticism.

-- Bryce Morrison, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 7
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.554020&languageid=EN
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paderewski-Concerto-Polish-Fantasia-original/dp/B00003Q40E

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Ignacy Jan Paderewski (18 November [O.S. 6 November] 1860 – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer, politician, and spokesman for Polish independence. As a pianist, he was a favourite of concert audiences around the globe, and his musical fame opened access to diplomacy and the media. As a politician, he was the prime minister of Poland and also Poland's foreign minister in 1919, and represented Poland at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Despite his relentless touring schedule and political engagements, Paderewski left a legacy of over 70 orchestral, instrumental and vocal works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignacy_Jan_Paderewski

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Janina Fialkowska, OC (born May 7, 1951 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian classical pianist. Fialkowska studied piano with Yvonne Hubert and in Paris with virtuoso and teacher Yvonne Lefébure. Following a prize-winning performance at the 1974 Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv, Arthur Rubinstein became her mentor and he launched her international career. A specialist of the Classic and Romantic repertoires, Fialkowska has garnered praise for her interpretations of the works of Chopin and Liszt. For the past 30 years, she has also championed the music of contemporary Polish composers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janina_Fialkowska

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Antoni Wit (born February 7, 1944 in Kraków) is a Polish conductor. He studied with Henryk Czyż, Krzysztof Penderecki and Nadia Boulanger. He has recorded over 90 albums, most of them for the Naxos label, and many of them with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, of which he managed and was artistic director from 1983 to 2000. Since year 2002 he has been music director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Wit specializes in the works of Polish composers such as Henryk Gorecki, Witold Lutosławski, Karol Szymanowski and Krzysztof Penderecki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Wit

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