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Site review by Polly Nomial November 9, 2007
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
I have always resisted owning these arrangements of Mozart's delightful concertos (even though they are from the masters own hand) but these performances are so good that one doesn't miss the fully orchestrated versions for a second.
Janina Fialkowska is a name that is not better known due to severe illness that, on the evidence on this disc alone, seems to be completely behind her now - I am glad that she is signed to a label that cares about sound as much as her playing indicates that she does. I remember a very fine account of the Chopin Etudes that she taped for the BBC back in the late 1980's or early 1990's and (as this was before the wonder of the internet for me) then wondered why I had not heard of her for a long while - a tumour in one of her arms was the reason, not that one would know this from the playing.
Just as I remembered, there is a tremendously sensitive and musical response to everything that she touches which is pure, beautiful and refreshing to a troubled souls. Every note is caressed into life without sacrificing the musical argument for beauty in its own right. The tempi are also perfectly judged throughout, as is the balance between the string quintet (a double bass mirrors the orchestral part to give extra weight to the stipulated quartet - not completely "authentic" but it works when played as sensitively as it is here). The string playing is so characterful that the potential issue of a perceived lack of variety of texture and timbre is not a concern that even flits across ones conciousness.
To round out the disc, the Chamber Players of Canada present one of Mozart's earliest quartets (incidentally the first quartet I ever played) in a delightfully fresh performance and manage to bring out the youthful inspiration. The playing is musicality itself, finding great joy and not imposing a style that tries to make more of the piece than is present in the score.
The sound is on as high a level as the musicianship and that is saying something! A beautifully natural and transparent balance where every detail and positioning of the instruments is stunning in every respect - this is a "melting wall" recording and a joy in every sense.
I've had a great deal of trouble stopping listening to this disc...
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Copyright © 2007 John Broggio and SA-CD.net
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Review by Edvin October 14, 2007 (11 of 11 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (S/MC): / |
My initial reaction was a big question mark. Why play these pieces in their arrangements for piano and string quintet. A rather pointless excercise, I thought.
I couldn´t be more wrong! This is surely the disc that I have had most pleasure from during the last six months, it is a delight from beginning to end. No wind instruments, chamber music instead. So of course the piano is a bit larger than before, but Fialkowska´s playing is so sensitive and intimate.
The whole enterprise is like a breath of fresh air. Two concertos with a youthful stamp played by musicians who obviously know and love the music intimatly. I didn´t miss the wind instruments at all - on the contrary I think these works benefit from the chamber music treatment. But then I do love Mozart´s chamber music dearly.
Janina Fialkowska is a virtuoso player and her story is one of curage and endurance, read the notes. The rapport between her and the string players is a match made in heaven.
Add to this the reproduced sound by Atma. This is one of the best recordings I have ever heard. The sound coming from the string quintet is so lifelike it´s almost scary. And when the piano arrives I was even more aware of being in a small concert hall. This is Hi-Fidelity in big letters. Absolutely one of my records of the year, a pure delight!
Take note BIS, PentaTone and other companies. Take a good look at this SACD. When did you last see a CD as beautiful as this?! The cover design is so lovely and it suits the music perfectly. No Aquarium fish, no conductors looking mad. This is style and quality through and through.
Thomas Roth
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Review by JJ February 14, 2008 (6 of 6 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (S/MC): / |
This recording out of Canada invites us to a musical gathering the likes of which we would like to hear more often. The Concertos for Piano N°11 K. 413 and N°12 K. 414, here proposed in the chamber versions the Austrian composer himself penned, are absolute masterpieces. As Mozart wrote: “These concertos present a welcome balance between what is too easy and too difficult; they are quite brilliant, pleasant to the ear and natural without being boring. There are passages here and there in which only those in the know will find any real satisfaction. But, the same passages have been written so that those less knowledgeable cannot help but be seduced, without knowing why.” Composed in late 1982 early 1783, these works were a source pride for Mozart, who, generally speaking, wanted to make his compositions popular in order to sell them. This splendid disc, in a recording that is remarkable for its natural and warmth, concludes with the Quartet N°4 K. 157. This latter is the work of a young man of seventeen and was conceived, as Julian Armour states: “to indulge the Italian taste of the time.” Accompanied by the Chamber Players of Canada, the pianist Janina Fialkowska wins us over by her delicate touch and phrasing that is both poetic and luminous. Her playing is a palette of light rather than color, and perfectly illustrates what musicologist Theodore Baker said, which is that Mozart in fact is the “supreme musical genius whose works have remained unequalled as much because of their beauty, their lyricism and their rhythmic diversity as because of their melodic invention.” A got-to-have.
Jean-Jacques Millo
Translation Lawrence Schulman
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