Description

With Invitation à la valse, Janina Fialkowska offers a sumptuous journey through the history and transformations of the waltz – an emblematic Romantic form and a privileged vehicle for intimate expression. Conceived as a florilegium inspired by Carl Maria von Weber’s Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65, this new album weaves a sensitive narrative in which impulses, hesitations, abandon, and swirling motion follow one another in a succession of miniatures that are as evocative as they are contrasting. From Weber to Ravel, via Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Grieg, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky, the waltz becomes a true theater of emotions, condensed into a few measures and carried by the pianist’s narrative breath and poetic depth of expression.

Throughout the program, Janina Fialkowska reveals the rich expressive diversity of the waltz, this dance in triple time: the youthful grace and refinement of Chopin, the sentimental lyricism of Schubert, the virtuosic lightness of Liszt, the Nordic inflections of Grieg and Sibelius, the elegant, seasonally inspired dances of Tchaikovsky, and finally Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales. Faithful to her musical integrity and natural approach, the pianist brings styles and eras into dialogue with rare coherence.