Chopin • Piano concertos (chamber version)

Description

Chopin in every likelihood performed his concertos at private salon concerts accompanied by a chamber ensemble. However, no actual score from these occasions has come down to us. The investigations of Janina Fialkowska and Julian Armour led them to Chopin’s original scores, wherein precise indications helped them reconstruct these chamber versions with a good measure of authenticity. «Upon further examination,… we ascertained that the parts for the string players were virtually identical to the earliest editions of the orchestral string parts but with cues for the wind instruments written in and obviously intended to be divided up and shared as best as possible between the six players. Actually, some of the vital wind parts (including the wind responses in the opening bars of the f-minor Larghetto and the famous horn call heralding the coda in the last movement) are totally missing from the strings’ scores heavily inferring that Chopin (or whatever pianist was involved) would have played these sections on the piano.» Janina Fialkowska, back after two years’ absence during which cancer in a muscle of her left arm almost put a brutal end to her career, returns to her preferred repertoire. (“Bravo for pianist’s heroic return … Virtually everything was there — the technical security, the poise, the sensitivity of touch, the grasp of the music’s structure and meaning. Yes, against all the medical odds, Janina Fialkowska had truly returned … – The Toronto Star, February 27th , 2004).