Janina Fialkowska is one of several pianists to have released recordings of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces in recent months, and nobody would begrudge her for starting off this recital as if it was the concert of the CD . Her 10 Grieg pieces showcased some sustained, shapely playing and absolute control of the mood swings between each piece. The playful flightiness of Butterfly was succeeded in an instant by a gently lilting, soothing account of At the Cradle; Summer Eve was especially tender and, ultimately, sonorous. But it was the thickly woven textures and clangorous build-up in Wedding Day at Troldhaugen that paved the way for the demanding nature of the rest of her programme.
Liszt’s Gretchen is a transcription the composer made of the second movement of his Faust Symphony, and a showcase for a relatively quiet kind of virtuosity, all about long melodies rather than splashy Lisztian heroics – though the music supporting those melodies is at times brutally demanding on the pianist. Fialkowska’s performance kept all the simultaneous lines spinning. And yet her tone could verge on the forthright and the opaque. Sometimes one felt the lack of a sense of weightlessness, both in the Liszt and in Ravel’s Jeux d’eau, which followed after the interval. The cascades up and down were even of touch and, yes, fluid; but this was a waterfall that would have got you soaked, rather than the ticklish, almost ethereal spray of droplets Ravel might have envisaged.
Schumann’s Faschingsschwank aus Wien emerged sounding similarly thickly woven, and though the heaviness of the bassline made the third movement sound on the plodding side, the outer movements had real bravura – Fialkowska was taking risks, even if not all of them came off. She was absolutely secure, though, in her two Chopin encores. Both were worth the wait, especially her account of the Minute Waltz, impossibly fast yet nonchalantly poised.
