Chopin Recital

Product description CD Review As part of my duties as Classical Editor in the Goings On About Town department, I write a "Classical Notes" column several times a year, usually a concentrated piece about two or three distinctive new recordings. Due to the columns' limited size and frequency, sometimes worthy discs have to be left out that would otherwise suit--the recording was released too late for inclusion, or just didn't quite fit into the tightly organized piece I was writing. Here are some notable additions. Back in April I wrote "Chopin List", a piece that examined the composer's music in vivid interpretations by Vassily Primakov, Marc-André Hamelin, and Nadia Reisenberg (as well as a rather less-than-vivid Lang Lang). A few weeks ago another Chopin album floated into the office: a "Chopin Recital" from the distinguished Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska. (The label is ATMA Classique, a fine Canadian imprint; they look after their own.) While there are more dazzling pianists on the scene, Fialkowska plays Chopin with a warmth, poetry, and detail of phrasing that is disappointingly rare today; she places her gifts at the composer's feet. She moves through a selection of waltzes, preludes, and mazurkas with aplomb, which is hardly surprising since she began her career as a protégée of Arthur Rubinstein. -- The New Yorker, December 1Russell Platt, December 14, 2009