Janina Fialkowska, piano| January 21, 2024 | House Program

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CLASSICAL / SOLOIST SERIES JANINA FIALKOWSKA Piano JANUARY 21, 2024, AT 2:30 PM PROGRAM SCHUBERT Piano Sonata No. 7 in E Flat Major, Op. 122, D. 568 Allegro moderato Andante molto Minuetto: Allegretto – Trio Allegro moderato BRAHMS Intermezzo in B Flat Major, Op. 76, No. 4 Rhapsodie in B Minor, Op. 79, No. 1 Intermezzo in A Major, Op.118, No. 2 Intermezzo in B Flat Minor, Op. 117, No. 2 Capriccio in D Minor, Op. 116, No. 7 INTERMISSION CHOPIN Polonaise in C Sharp Minor, Op.26, No. 1 Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38 Mazurka in B Flat Major, Op. 7, No 1 Mazurka in E Minor, Op. 17, No. 2 Scherzo No. 4 in E Major, Op. 54
PROGRAM NOTES Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was a prolific composer who lived his entire short life in Vienna. While he appeared to write songs with great ease and imagination, he seems to have laboured more when composing piano sonatas than almost any other genre, completing only eleven of the almost two dozen he started. Still, the completed works are richly rewarding, often displaying an emphasis on lyrical melodic writing as can be heard in the E-Flat Major Sonata that opens this concert. Curiously, this work began with three movements of sketches from 1817 for a D-Flat Major Sonata but, with the prospect of publication a decade later, these movements were transposed to E-Flat Major, extensively rewritten, and increased to four movements with the addition of a minuet. The lilt of this minuet’s graceful triple meter displays a genteel charm more akin to an Austrian Ländler than usually heard in the more classical minuets of Mozart or Haydn. This dance flavour continues to resonate in some of the 6/8 metered passages of the final movement which, in understated fashion, ends softly as the main theme’s final appearance drifts gently away. From 1869 until his death, Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) also called Vienna home. Being blessed with a lifespan twice as long as Schubert’s, Brahms lived long enough to occupy the same exalted position Beethoven had held as one of the city’s preeminent living composers. In his short piano pieces, Brahms uses the title, “Capriccio,” for compositions built from rhythmically exciting musical material, while “Intermezzo” is used to convey a somewhat emotionally introspective piece. The central A-Major Intermezzo heard in today’s group of five pieces, is one of his most popular works of this kind and has a motivic ingenuity that is remarkably integrated in the way the opening pitches (C#-B-D, C#-B-A) are continually reused, including being turned upside down. The B-Minor Rhapsodie is an expansive work that uses a rather systematic rondo design of ABACABA instead of a free, episodic structure often found in rhapsodies. What is perhaps rhapsodic is the way the chiselled profile of the opening theme is continually adapted to generate transitions between passages of remarkable dramatic intensity, and how the central section is so contrastingly slow and expressive. Recognizing Vienna’s musical and cultural importance, Frédéric Chopin (1810 –1849) left Poland in 1830 to establish a pianist/composer career in Vienna. Within a year he moved to Paris, finding the more openly supportive and progressive salon scene in that city to be a better fit for his music and temperament. Throughout his career, Chopin’s Polish roots are often on display in his music, particularly in his original compositions based on the character of Polish folk dances, such as widely varied mazurkas and the more regal polonaises. Chopin wrote a total of four Ballades and four Scherzos during his lifetime, and all these works are highly virtuosic and display an original approach to integrated musical form. ©2024 by John Burge for the Isabel ABOUT JANINA FIALKWOSKA For 50 years, concert pianist Janina Fialkowska has enchanted audiences and critics around the world. She has been praised for her musical integrity, her refreshing natural approach and her unique piano sound thus becoming “one of the Grandes Dames of piano playing” (Frankfurter Allgemeine). Born in Canada, she began her piano studies with her mother at age 4 continuing on in her native Montreal with Yvonne Hubert. In Paris she studied with Yvonne Lefébure and in New York at the Juilliard School with Sascha Gorodnitzki, experiencing the best of both French and Russian piano traditions. Her career was launched in 1974, when the legendary Arthur Rubinstein became her mentor after her prize-winning performance at his inaugural Master Piano Competition, calling her a “born Chopin interpreter” laying the foundation for her lifelong identification with this composer. Since then she has performed with the foremost orchestras worldwide under the baton of such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Bernard Haitink, Lorin Maazel, Sir Georg Solti, Sir Roger Norrington
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Janina Fialkowska, piano| January 21, 2024 | House Program

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