{"id":12749,"date":"2013-05-30T22:32:17","date_gmt":"2013-05-31T03:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=12749"},"modified":"2013-05-30T22:32:17","modified_gmt":"2013-05-31T03:32:17","slug":"concert-review-transformative-chopin-with-janina-fialkowska-and-tafelmusik-at-koerner-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/05\/30\/concert-review-transformative-chopin-with-janina-fialkowska-and-tafelmusik-at-koerner-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Concert review: Transformative Chopin with Janina Fialkowska and Tafelmusik at Koerner Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Janina<\/a>
Janina Fialkowska with an 1848 Pleyel grand piano and 10 members of Tafelmusik at Koerner Hall on Thursday night (john Terauds phone photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tafelmusik is closing its 2012-13 season at Koerner Hall with a highly contrasted programme that pushes the period-instrument deeper into the 19th century. Its most successful element is the most intimate: A performance by Janina Fialkowska of Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2<\/em> with five string players and five wind players.<\/p>\n

At the first of the week’s concerts, on Thursday night, Fialkowska’s portion of the programme turned into a transformative experience.<\/p>\n

Chopin’s two piano concertos of the early 1830s are cornerstones of the repertoire, showpieces designed to showcase an easy virtuosity and poised musicality. The orchestration is a bit thin, to better help the modern concert grand dominate the music.<\/p>\n

Fialkowska collaborated with the Chamber Players of Canada nearly a decade ago to record the Chopin concertos with a small ensemble of modern instruments. The resulting album remains my ideal of what this music should sound like: an easy mingling of instrumental voices marked by utter clarity and balance.<\/p>\n

In a further spirit of adventure, Fialkowska showed up with Tafelmusik two seasons ago to perform the Piano Concerto No. 1<\/em> with period instruments. This week she tackles the other concerto, in a 2009 arrangement by Dutch composer Sylvia Maessen.<\/p>\n

Maessen assigns an equal amount of work to both string and wind instruments — but the winds naturally overpower the strings, making for a slightly unbalanced orchestration.<\/p>\n

Instead of a modern concert grand, Fialkowska is playing a perfectly restored (down to soft-iron period strings) grand piano made by the Parisian company Pleyel in 1848, a year before Chopin’s death. The muffled, mellow sound it produces sings a lot less than a much larger and beefier modern Steinway concert grand.<\/p>\n

Here, then the soloist is reduced to a true equal collaborator with the other instrumentalists, putting Chopin’s virtuosic garlands of notes for the pianist in a completely different light.<\/p>\n

The result on Thursday night was charming, but I would need to hear this several more times before committing to a verdict of like or dislike. It’s clear, however, that hearing the Chopin concerto in this context has the potential to rock a listener’s world.<\/p>\n

The balance of this week’s programme is devoted to Ludwig van Beethoven’s musical dramatics: the Symphony No. 4<\/em> as well as the Coriolan<\/em> and Egmont<\/em> Overtures, conducted by longtime guest conductor Bruno Weil.<\/p>\n

Thursday night’s performances were strong, nicely nuanced, but frequently a bit ragged (especially the Egmont) — a situation that is likely to improve with each performance until Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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