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Janina Fialkowska's Enchanting Schubert · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:00
  This is Jed Distler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings. I haven't talked yet about Schubert sonatas in any of the episodes up till now,
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  the 19th episode. I've noticed that this lovely release from 2013 is still available. It features
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  the pianist Janina Fjellkowska. It's on the Canadian Atma label and it features two sonatas
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  by Franz Schubert, the A major sonata, Deutsch number 664, known as the little A major sonata,
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  as opposed to the big A major sonata, Deutsch number 959, one of the three posthumous sonatas,
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  and we will talk about that in a later episode. Also on this disk is that so-called fantasy
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  sonata in G major, Deutsch number 894. Fjellkowska brings a strong individual profile to these works,
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  yet always, always in the best of taste. I'm talking in particular about the noticeable
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  rhythmic leeway that she takes in the A major sonata's first movement, but the music is basically
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  songful in nature and it can easily absorb the pianist's freedom. The slow movement is beautiful,
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  although a little more contained on the surface in Fjellkowska's performance, but she opens up
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  again throughout the finale and her freedom underlines the music's subtext. This time it's
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  a subtext of playfulness and also she brings out the sense of the unexpected in Schubert's modulations.
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  Fjellkowska sustains the G major sonata's lengthy first movement by kind of keeping the melodies
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  very alive and supple, and this is one of the few times that taking that long exposition repeat
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  does not sound redundant. Her andante is taken at a brisker than usual tempo and it moves with,
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  I guess for lack of a better word, naturalness. I wish I could describe it better. I think that
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  this movement is better heard than described. The minuet is maybe a tad worked over with the
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  phrasing italicized and angular to a fault, maybe, as if Fjellkowska was trying to emulate
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  or to schnabel, but maybe this approach helps to underscore the music's conflict between major and
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  minor modes. In the end it's a convincing performance, but I had to listen a few times to get used to it.
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  Sometimes in the finale, Fjellkowska accelerates some of the repeated note groupings like
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  instead of, forgive me for my horrible singing, but I think that the pianist makes this gesture
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  work and she makes it sound rather magical. And again, this is something that I think is better
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  heard than described, which is why I've included links to listen to and to purchase this release.
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  So I'm not going to give up my reference recordings for either the little A major
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  with Leon Fleischer or the G major fantasy sonata with Arcadio Volodos,
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  but Janina Fjellkowska's Schubert is very special and it really has an individual profile and
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  that's why I'm very happy to have them in my collection, and I think you will be happy to
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  have these performances in your collection as well. This is Jed Disler, and you've been
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  listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings. It goes
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  without saying that I will be talking about more Schubert sonata performances in future episodes,
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  so thank you so much for listening and please tell all of your music-loving friends
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  about the Piano Maven.