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A TRIBUTE TO A LEGEND OF THE MUSIC WORLD
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 Janina
and the legendary Guarneri String Quartet after rehearsing Schumann’s piano quintet
at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Arthur Rubinstein's most successful protégés, Janina Fialkowska and the Guarneri
String Quartet, teamed up to perform the Schumann Piano Quintet in an emotional
memorial celebration of the grand old Master. "This celebration was a worthy tribute
to one of the great pianists of the 20th century" (Evening Standard).
 Janina and Producer Max Wilcox: Rubinstein 's only recording collaborator and producer since the 1950's.
 Janina and Ronnie Harwood; academy award winning screenplay writer and playwright and 2008 academy award nominee.
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Major Canadian Arts Award for Janina
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Toronto, November 6th, 2007. Janina Fialkowska and her illustrious colleague Jazz
pianist Lorraine Desmarais (who happens to be a former school mate of Janina’s from
her teenage years in Montreal) are the 2007 recipients of the Paul de Hueck and
Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Keyboard Artistry, winning $10,000 each.
The jury recognized Janina Fialkowska for her moving and poetic interpretations
of 19th and 20th century repertoire. They also acknowledged her remarkable efforts
to reach new audiences with projects such as Piano Six that have taken music to
new audiences in rural Canada.
The de Hueck/Walford Award was established at the Ontario Arts Foundation by the
late Norman Walford, former Executive Director of the Ontario Arts Council, and
the late Paul de Hueck, former CBC television production manager.
These awards recognize the achievement of outstanding Canadian artists in keyboard
artistry, singing and art photography. It is the first time since 1998 that the
biennial Hueck/Walford prize has been awarded to a pianist.
The Ontario Arts Council administered the selection process. The Ontario Arts Foundation
manages the endowment that funds the de Hueck/Walford Award.
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The "glorious" Mephisto-Waltz (The New Yorker, Sept. 16th, 2007)
Janina becomes part of the Joyce Hatto Saga
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The Joyce Hatto scandal of CD misappropriation is now well documented. Joyce Hatto
was the British pianist who made a stunning CD career with the help of her unsavory
husband by using the recordings of others and claiming them as her own. See a very
detailed article in "The New Yorker" issue of Sept. 16th.
The New Yorker Website
One key recording which started the whole Hatto myth was "her" recording of the
Liszt "Mephisto Waltz" whose true source remained a mystery. "For instance, no one
has yet identified the pianist in the glorious recording of the "Mephisto Waltz"—assuming
(the default assumption) that it wasn’t Hatto herself." ("The New Yorker").
Within days of the publication of the article came the discovery that the Liszt
recording was in fact Janina’s. "Piano detective" Farhan Malik, unearthed the truth
after careful research and great technical expertise.
Website of
Farhan Malik
It appears that Janina’s recording of Liszt’s "Venezia e Napoli" has also been pirated
by the infamous couple.
Janina Fialkowska:"I find it a dubious distinction being in any shape or form associated
with this sinister couple. However I find myself in excellent musical company with
the other "victims" and I am, of course, extremely pleased that "my" "Mephisto Waltz"
has such an enthusiastic following."
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Major article in top German newspaper |
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The "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" is, without a doubt, one of Germany’s most important
daily newspapers. This extraordinary article, placed most prominently and covering
three quarters of the the fabled "Seite 3" ("Third page"), is an indication of Janina’s
growing popularity in Europe. The article was published on the day of her triumphant
recital on the renowned "Euromusica Master Concerts" Series in Rome, Italy.
Read the article as PDF (1.4 MB)
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Dr. Fialkowska |
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Honorary Doctorate for Janina from Acadia University
On a beautiful Spring day last May of 2006, with the sound of the bagpipes filling
the air, Janina Fialkowska was ushered into Convocation Hall at Acadia University,
Nova Scotia, one of Canada's oldest and finest educational institutions. After a
moving citation given by Prof. John Hansen, head of the Music Department, extolling
her many and varied achievements, both personal and professional, Janina received
an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Arthur Irving, Chancellor of the University.
Janina then delivered a twenty minute speech to the assembled professors, graduating
students and administration, which resulted in thunderous applause and a prolonged
standing ovation.
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Telegraph, 17/04/2006
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Because of her performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in April of 2006
the London Daily Telegraph printed a full page feature article about Janina. The
online version may be read by clicking here
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Recording Comeback |
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The Chopin concertos
“She has not just produced another recording of the two standard concertos but a
unique one … Fialkowska could hardly have chosen a more suitable project for her
return to recording and has risen to the challenge of the music with real distinction.”
(William Littler, The Toronto Star, May 5th, 2005)
An innovative new CD has been released marking the return of Janina Fialkowska to
the recording studio. In collaboration with the Chamber Players of Canada Janina
performs an exciting interpretation of the two piano concertos by Chopin in the
rarely heard chamber version with string quintet accompaniment, the way the composer
himself preferred to play them publicly.
It offers a fascinating glimpse into Chopin's world of the 1830s Parisian salon
and a unique opportunity to experience Chopin’s enduring and much beloved masterworks
by “a born Chopin interpreter” (Arthur Rubinstein). Janina’s interpretation, critically
acclaimed around the world, of these all-time audience favorites, is finally available
on CD!
It heralds the beginning of Janina’s association with the award-winning Canadian
recording company Atma classique.
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"The Launching of "Encore Six"" (Maclean's, October 2004) |
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In the Key of Life
A fighter takes her show on the back roads again
John Intini
FROM THE AGE of 4 you spend hours at the piano perfecting the classics. By 25, you're
selling out concerts on both sides of the Atlantic. For the next quarter-century,
critics consider you one of the world's greatest musicians. Then one day in January
2002, doctors discover a highly aggressive malignant tumour in your upper left arm,
forcing you to step back from the instrument you love. A paralyzing blow for most
people. But not for Janina Fialkowska. "Sometimes I made myself think that my playing
wouldn't come back," says Fialkowska, 53. "I'd get upset for a few seconds, but
always remained optimistic. I knew I'd play again. Guess I'm just stubborn."
Not to mention lucky, and incredibly passionate about her art -- something she'd
already demonstrated by founding Piano Six, now expanded and being relaunched this
fall as Encore Six, to send musicians to small-town Canada. After months of radiation
to shrink the tumour, surgery to remove the growth left the Montreal-born virtuoso
unable to raise her hand to the keyboard. So she taught herself how to play music
written for the left hand, using only her right. Eight months later, a muscle from
her back was transplanted into her limp left arm. "Five months after the second
surgery I was able to hold my hand to the keyboard, but could only move it a short
distance," recalls Fialkowska, who splits her time between homes she and her husband,
German impresario Harry Oesterle, own in Weston, Conn., Augsburg, Germany, and Montreal.
"I had to order my hand down the keyboard, but within two weeks was playing Chopin.
It took six months of building up muscle memory to really play, but at that moment
I knew I was back."
Her recovery -- all the more miraculous given that doctors believed she'd never
play professionally again -- was complete last spring when Fialkowska performed
at Toronto's George Weston Recital Hall. "I certainly worked my tear ducts at rehearsal,"
says the one-time protege of the legendary Artur Rubinstein. "That night was sheer
joy." Except for having to lean slightly to her left to reach all the keys, little
in her playing has changed. The only major difference is fatigue. "I used to practise
six hours a day and now only do about three," she says. "Chopin told his students
not to work more than three hours a day because the brain can't take it. I practise
more in my head now. And my husband and I power walk every morning. I've never been
in such great shape."
Physical fitness isn't the only positive outcome of her illness. The two years of
recovery also allowed Fialkowska to reorganize Piano Six, the music program she
started in 1994 with the help of five other world-class domestic musicians. The
not-for-profit organization funds artist trips to small Canadian towns and cities
and rural communities to introduce school kids and adults to classical music through
workshops, master classes and concerts. "Just like people should be able to walk
into a museum and look at a Rembrandt," says Fialkowska, "they should be able to
enjoy classical music."
Pianist Jon Kimura Parker was the first musician Fialkowska contacted a decade ago
with her idea. "Piano Six made me come alive as a musician in a way unique to all
other experiences," says the Vancouver native, who teaches at Houston's Rice University.
"The most memorable concerts I've given have been at the Berlin Philharmonie, my
first time at Carnegie Hall, and in Iqaluit. The trip to Baffin Island was an incredible
sharing of music. At one point the entire gym of kids sang their school song to
me."
Fialkowska kicks off Encore Six this month in the Maritimes and hopes that her team
-- now up to 21 artists, not all pianists -- will visit more than 100 places in
2005. "The concerts are the scariest to do because it's such a huge responsibility,"
she says. "This is the first time these kids are hearing someone like Chopin or
Bach. It may be the most important thing I've done in my entire life."
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Cover story of "La scena musicale" |
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The cover story of "La Scena Musicale's" May issue is Janina Fialkowska. The
following is the link to an electronic online version of the story :
Electronic
online version
The whole issue can also be downloaded as a pdf file. The article starts on page
28.
Whole Issue
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Virtuosa completes her comeback |
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National Post, Monday, March 1, 2004
Virtuosa completes her comeback
Janina Fialkowska, with the Toronto Philharmonia
At the George Weston Recital Hall, Toronto
by Tamara Bernstein
Welcome back, Janina. On a rational level, I had understood the extraordinary musical-medical
odyssey that led Janina Fialkowska to the stage of the George Weston Recital Hall
on Thursday night – the virtuoso pianist’s discovery of an aggressive tumour on
her upper left arm two years ago; radiation; surgery that left her unable to raise
that arm to the keyboard; reconstructive surgery nine months later that rerouted
a rarely-used muscle from her upper back into the arm; endless physiotherapy; a
triumphant “try-out” recital in Germany before an invited audience, and finally,
on Thursday, her first professional performance with two hands since the ordeal
began.
But it was only when the Montreal-born pianist walked onto stage that the enormity
of her achievement sunk in viscerally for me. It’s hard to imagine the literally
bone-deep talent, the intelligence and sheer determination required to regain a
concert level of virtuosity and artistry – not to mention the platform nerves of
a high-wire artist – with a new musculature. But regain it Fialkowska has – and
in the process, I daresay, added several more fathoms of maturity to her artistry,
which was hardly shallow to start with.
It was only when Fialkowska played the first, serene chord of the concerto, that
I allowed myself to face the unthinkable: that we almost lost this magnificent artistry.
I had missed her warm, translucent sound as one misses an old friend.
I loved Fialkowska’s approach to the concerto – introspective, lyrical, with a keen
ear for the ebbs and flow of its musical energy. Her fine chiseling of the five-measure
solo that (unconventionally) opens the concerto contained the major dramas of the
piece in embryo. The contrast of the serene, timeless first chord, for instance,
and the flurry of crisp, forward-moving chords that followed it would later flower
into the extraordinary second movement, where the piano’s otherworldly contemplations
gradually “tame” the orchestra’s rough, staccato utterances. Fialkowska has always
voiced pianistic textures with great subtlety. But on Thursday the beauty of her
left hand sound in lyrical passages was breathtaking –as if the hand is packing
all the music it couldn’t make (in public) for the past two years into Thursday’s
performance. The finale was a luminous, almost Chopinesque dance, with Fialkowska’s
innate feel for the give and take of central European dance rhythms serving her
well.
(...)
The Toronto Philharmonia and conductor Kerry Stratton rose to the occasion, giving
a clean, alert accompaniment as engaged, or more so, than many I’ve heard from the
Toronto Symphony. To be sure, the clarity and musicality of Fialkowska’s timing
make her rubatos easy to catch. But not every conductor does, and Stratton is to
be congratulated.
(...)
Bravo, nonetheless, to Stratton, as well as to other presenters who engaged Fialkowska
for this season, for having faith in the recovery of a much-loved artist.
Copyright by Tamara Bernstein
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Bravo for pianist's heroic return |
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The Toronto Star, Feb. 27, 2004
Bravo for pianist's heroic return
by William Littler
No sooner had the final triumphant measures of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.4 in
G Major begun to echo through George Weston Recital Hall last night than the audience
was on its feet, applauding and cheering. Something very special had just happened
and everyone seemed to know it, perhaps especially the 52-year-old woman who rose
from the keyboard to acknowledge the tribute (...).
Last night marked her formal return to the two hand repertoire, playing what she
has called her favourite concerto. It certainly sounded like her favourite concerto.
I doubt I've ever heard the Montreal-born pianist give a more musically satisfying
performance. 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.
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A „Comeback“ amongst friends |
>>> Open
Picture Gallery >>>
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On January 13th, 2002 Janina Fialkowska performed an all-Liszt recital including
the “Twelve Transcendental Etudes” in the “Festsaal” of the famed Kloster Irsee,
Germany, a former Benedictine Monastery situated in the foothills of the Bavarian
Alps, now transformed into a conference centre hosting international conventions,
seminars and concerts. This recital was the first of a series of recitals to be
held over the next few months which would have encompassed 8 countries in Europe
and North America. Two weeks later she was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in
her left shoulder which brought her performing career to a halt (see the relevant
National Post article on this site). Two years later on the exact same day in the
exact venue and after a successful muscle transfer operation, Janina Fialkowska
returned to play her first comeback recital. 170 invited guests from all over the
world filled the intimate Baroque hall to witness this extraordinary event.
The “Augsburg Journal” reported:
A touching concert
Janina Fialkowska masters her destiny and plays masterfully in Irsee
One could feel the emotion in the audience in the Festsaal of Kloster Irsee, when
Janina Fialkowska took her place at the keyboard (…) Her daring venture was successful:
The members of the audience held their breath as she sat down at the piano only
to break into jubilant applause at the conclusion of the first piece (“7 Lyric Pieces
by Edvard Grieg). The rest of the program: Four Impromptus Opus 142 by Schubert,
Two Mazurkas Op.62 by Szymanowski and Chopin’s Sonata No.3 Opus 58 in b-minor).
“Magnificent” one felt like shouting. The frenetic applause never let up and swept
away by the artistry of the Canadian the guests gave her a standing ovation(…)
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The official „Comeback“ in Toronto |
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On February 26th, 2004, Janina Fialkowska will be making her official comeback to
the concert stage playing Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto with the Toronto Philharmonia
at the George Weston Recital Hall (Toronto Centre for the Arts).
Tickets may be purchased through Ticketmaster, +1-416-870-8000, or by visiting the
Toronto Centre for the Arts box office, 5040 Yonge Street.
For information and brochures, call +1-416-499-2204, or visit the Toronto Philharmonia
website, www.torontophil.on.ca
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Order of Canada |
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Halifax, October 26th, 2002 :
Janina Fialkowska receives her appointment as Officer of the Order of Canada from
the Governor General of Canada, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson.
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"A single-handed return", National Post (Toronto, Canada)
by Tamara Bernstein |
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JANINA FIALKOWSKA
Pianist is back just eight months after removal of tumour
By Tamara Bernstein
On May 1 of last year, Janina Fialkowska sat down at her piano and played
"every last one" of her favourite Chopin pieces - and that would be a lot -
ending with the sublime slow movement of the B-Minor Sonata. Then she closed
the piano and said, "Good-bye: see you in a couple of years." "Maybe I was
being a bit dramatic," the Montreal-born pianist later admitted. But when she
performs with Orchestra London Canada this week, she'll be playing a concerto
for left hand only - with her right hand.
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read more >>>
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First Judy Elder Alumna Award for Janina Fialkowska |
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Janina Fialkowska’s former school, “The Study” in Montreal has created a special
award in honour of Judy Elder:
The Judy Elder Alumna Award.
Judy, who died in 2002 at the age of 47 of a rare blood disease, was general manager
of Microsoft Canada. The Award in her name will be presented on an annual basis
to a Study alumna who has distinguished herself in her chosen field of endeavour
and who embodies the values that Judy embraced: heart-based leadership, vision,
courage to break new ground and ambition, both for herself and for others.
Janina Fialkowska was the award’s first recipient.
The ceremony was held on The Study's Founder's day, on October 23rd, 2003.
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Janina Fialkowska in front of "The Study"
Kathy Elder (Judy Elder's sister), Elizabeth Falco (Head of School) and Janina Fialkowska
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