I’ve loved interviewing thirty wonderful pianists and pedagogues. The Classical Conversations Series has been lots of fun, and I’ve learned so much from speaking to all of the outstanding players and teachers who have so kindly taken part. The thirtieth interview features great Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska. We met in North London to chat all about her life and work.

Find out more about Janina, here.

And the transcript for those who prefer to read my interviews:

MELANIE SPANSWICK: Renowned Canadian concert pianist Janina Fialkowska came to prominence at the inaugural Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Israel and has been playing all around the world to great acclaim ever since. She is a specialist in the Classical and Romantic repertoire, and I’m so pleased that she’s joining me here today in North West London for my 30th Classical Conversation. Welcome.

JAININA FIALKOWSKA: Thank you.

MS: Fantastic to be chatting to you today, Wonderful.

JF: Thank you. And it’s such a beautiful day!

MS: It is, It really is. I’m going to start by asking you all about your musical education: how old were you when you started, what was the catalyst?

JF: Oh, the catalyst was quite clear. My mother. [Laughter]

I was 4-years-old. My brother, three years older than I, was already playing. I wanted to be like him. My mother is a piano teacher and so she got us going, but she sensed a little bit of talent there, so – and I must say, my mother is wonderful. She wasn’t a stage mother, but she certainly wanted me to play the piano well and so it was a serious business right from the beginning.

MS: And so, which teacher then or teachers do you think were most crucial in your development?

JF: I have been extraordinarily lucky with my teachers. There wasn’t one that I didn’t love, actually. The first one and this, perhaps was the luckiest of all, was Yvonne Hubert. She was a pupil of Alfred Cortot and she’d somehow landed in Montreal, which is where I was born and where I was raised, and, you know, half of the Canadian pianists that I meet or even three quarters of them that have made it to big international names studied with Yvonne Hubert and I’m not just speaking of myself, Louis Lortie, Marc-André Hamelin, and so on. André Laplante. We all studied at Yvonne Hubert. We studied all at the same time. It was an explosion of pianists at that time. And Angela was also studying just down the road, Angela Hewitt. It was actually an exciting time for all of us and so Yvonne Hubert was definitely a huge influence. I was with her from the age of 11 until the age of 17, and a wonderful just natural pedagogue. Very clear, very serious and I think probably what I – if people would say that I played piano cleanly and clearly and honestly, some people say that, it was probably because of her. You know, she didn’t let anything go by, you know. Of course, she was a very wonderful musician. I was very lucky to know her. From her it was a natural progression to go to Paris, where I studied two years with Yvonne Lefébure, who was absolutely different and yet also a pupil Cortot. But, she was theatrical, and she was late Beethoven, and she was French music and; where as Yvonne Hubert for me was much more Beethoven and Chopin. Yvonne Lefébure was all these new composers. I did a lot of Bach with her, for example, and learned a lot about colour and well, the theatrics of playing in concerts and what it meant to be a concert pianist.

MS: How did you develop your technique? I always love to ask this question because everyone develops in such a different way.

JF: You know, there was never – there was actually never any thought about developing my technique. With my mother, I did the Cortot exercises until about the age of nine, but after that really it was just doing pieces and working – I guess I had a fairly natural technique so – and by the age of 11 I was already, well I’d done Czerny Etudes which were not very interesting for me. Although, some of them aren’t so bad now looking back at it, but then, you know, the glory of finally getting to the Chopin Études and the Liszt Études. That all started by around the age of 11. I was starting to play those and that was of course wonderful, Moszkowski Études. Yvonne Hubert was very intelligent in giving me specific repertoire, for example, quite early on, when I was about 12 or 13, she gave me Saint-Saens G minor Concerto to learn. She thought that would help broaden my octave technique and you know various things. She planned the pieces specifically to develop certain aspects of my technique, but never forcing it. Never said: Oh, we’re doing this for technical reasons. They always put the music first, which I thoroughly appreciated.

MS: So, you came to prominence after the Rubinstein price, and how did this shape your career do you think? It must have had a big impact on you, because he was your mentor as well?

JF: He was my mentor. The only reason that I went to that competition was because the CBC of Canada sent me. The competition had been scheduled for the year before, which was very unfortunate. There was a Middle East war. Of course, then the competition was, we thought, cancelled, and at that point I entered law school. So, that’s how Rubinstein changed my career, because then the competition was put back on in September ’74, which was when I was supposed to start law school. And I nearly didn’t go, but then the CBC said “Go, go!” and then my wonderful teacher at the Juilliard School was Sasha Gorodnitzki said, “If you go there, you know, something wonderful could happen.” And he said, “Arthur Rubinstein is there he has no axe to grind. He is not political any way.” You know, he said, “He has no pupils, and he’s there. If he likes your talent, he might help you.” And those were very, very wise words. And so I said, “Right. I’ll miss the first few days of law school.” And of course, that’s how it changed my career. Because before, before there was no competition, I had played exactly one professional concert in my life.

MS: Gosh, so huge change.

JF: Huge change. From one to 44 all the biggest possible dates because of Rubinstein. I didn’t win the competition. I claimed third prize. The winner was my best buddy Emanuel Ax, who thoroughly deserved it. I was – as I say, I was totally inexperienced, but I think Rubinstein sensed something in me that should be helped, and so he set up my first 44 concerts simply by saying, “I will play this concert if Janina plays it next year. So that was his last tour, my first. And so that was pretty hectic.

MS: So you’re renowned for your interpretation of Chopin. What are the qualities that you particularly love? What draws you to it so much?

JF: If you have a name like Janina Fialkowska, you can’t not play Chopin. It’s, it’s a national thing, you know, of Poland, like who else has an airport you know called you know the Chopin Airport in Warsaw. I had to. Needless to say, he is in my heart and my favourite composer to play because I feel that he understood the piano better than any of the other composers with the exception of Liszt or something. And well, it’s the melodies, it’s the Slavic mood of Chopin. It’s the rhythms, of course, which I don’t know, I really don’t know if it’s in your blood or if isn’t in your blood but there’s certain things that surprise me and I never had to learn the Mazurka Rhythm, for example, which a lot of people do. It just came – so perhaps I’m lucky or perhaps it is something to do with being half polish. I love Chopin, and what can I say? He has everything. The drama, the, the kind of slight – the nobility – the slight distance to – between you and the audience, you know, but everything that is going on, but he’s slightly hiding it. Then you have to find it. I just love everything about Chopin. The mystery, the sadness.

MS: This love is the reason you love Paderewski and Moszkowski as well? These polish-roots?

JF: What happened is that, of course, it’s other people that said, “Oh, she’s polish. Oh, she plays Chopin? Well, then she should play the others.” And I didn’t know the Paderewski Concerto. And I didn’t know the Moszkowski, but people came to me and said, “Would you learn this?” And then I’ve played them. Of course, they’re not the greatest composers in the world. They’re not at the level of Chopin or Mozart or anything, but I have to say the slow movement of the Paderewski Concerto is a masterpiece. It’s just fabulous, and the Moszkowski – it’s certainly on a level with the Saint-Saens.

MS: Yes.

JF: I call it the Slavic Saint-Saens. And they’re well worth hearing and I keep trying to programme these pieces and boring orchestras.

MS: They are not interested.

JF: Well, they’re not interesting. They’re frightened. They’re frightened the audience might not take to this music, but it’s not even what’s so called contemporary music. I mean, contemporary music now is anything written after 1920, I think. But, you know, it’s totally accessible, very romantic, very flashy. I try – some places will do it still, but I don’t know when the last time I played the Paderewski must be 7 years ago or 8 years ago. Moszkowski, 10 years ago.

MS: That’s a pity.

JF: Yes, it is.

MS: You also play a lot of contemporary music though. And you’ve given a lot of premieres.

JF: I do.

MS: So, what are the challenges of learning that compared to Classical or Romantic?

JF: It’s actually, to be totally honest, it’s much easier because if you’re playing contemporary music no one’s done that before you.

[Laughter]

So…

MS: Except for the composer who will know, of course.

JF: Well, he doesn’t know most of the time!

[Laughter]

They don’t know. The poor composers. What a job these days. [Laughter]

They’re so grateful they you’re actually playing their work. So, it’s actually very nice playing. You have to find a piece that you really like, then it’s lots of fun because then you make it your own. You can use whatever you want in it. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult when it’s a concerto because then to put it in an orchestral concert and stuff. I just played the Lutosławski concerto in Toronto. It’s an absolute masterpiece, absolutely great concerto, but it’s terribly difficult. Now that is terribly difficult, because it does matter every note that you play, it does matter. You can’t fake it. So, that was tricky, but I would love another chance to play it I don’t know when. I mean, one gets the chance because the composer is a 100 years old. I mean do I have to wait now 150 years to play it again?

MS: You do a lot of outreach work. I think you got to set up Piano Plus and Piano Six, you’re the founder. Tell us a little bit about this, and the reasons why you set it up.

JF: Well this was – I set it up back in the ’90s and what I realised – actually it all stems from Rubinstein again. Rubinstein had a beautiful silver tray in his sitting room that had been given to him by his manager in the U.S. and on the tray – I think for their 25th anniversary – and on the tray were inscribed all the names of the towns where he played in North America. And I was looking at these towns one day at his house and I thought, “I’ve never played there, I’ve never played there, I’ve never played there.” And this stayed with me and then years later, I started to think about it seriously, because I was seeing that little recital series where I had played in, in Canada, for example, had died out. They just ran out of money. And whole generations were not getting to hear music. Canada is pretty sprawled out so it’s hard. And in Rubinstein’s time he would fly into Montreal or even Halifax, get on a train and at every stop play a concert, like Elisabeth Schwarzkopf or Leontyne Price or Horowitz or Arrau. They all did that. That’s why in the tiniest little towns like Chicoutimi or Moose Jaw, or wherever in Canada, they got to hear the greatest. And by the time I was playing and, you know, this explosion of Canadian pianists in the 80s and 90s and we were all playing in some of the big towns where you fly to or abroad.

So I thought this is all wrong and no one’s going to do anything about it, so we had to do something about it. So I wrote to Angela Hewitt, I wrote to all of them, Marc-Andre, all these Canadian pianists and we formed a group of six and then the government jumped on the idea. They loved it. They’re our Canada counsel. And a lot of sponsored money, a lot of – everybody loved the idea, because we were doing it for nothing and no could believe that we would do something like that for nothing. And it got a lot of publicity and Canada’s – it’s easily manageable. They’re only 31 million people, so it lasted nearly 10 years and then I was ill. But I set it up so that we all got to play – it was exhausting. It was wonderful, but it was exhausting. You would fly into a town, you would spend the entire day doing workshops, kiddy concerts, teacher meetings, dinners and then the concert at night. And so when you left and you would drive to the next place 500 miles away or whatever and you’re already 10,000 miles away from any human habitation sometimes even really far North. It was, it was exhausting and also, we all had our own careers – it was really too much so we, after 10 years, we all said, “Others can do it.”

Then a lot of Canadian violinists, singers and young pianists came along. I set it up for them and then I stopped administrating. But, it did succeed and why it succeeded so well that now I’m actually invited to play on regular series in some of those towns that had not even had a former piano when I first went in the 90s and so it did really work.

MS: Now, in 2002 you were diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in your left arm, which had a huge impact on your career. How did you find the strength to carry on and resume after that?

JF: I think I am very stubborn and I think I’m not very bright. I just, I just did it and you know I- you work so hard to achieve a level of excellence, a certain level of excellence on the piano, and to have it taken away from you, it’s just- and to have that whole, your whole life devoted to music. You know, it’s something to say oh well you’ll always have your music you can listen to it or whatever. It’s not the same. You want to make it yourself, so I, I just did it.

MS: But, you took quite a while off didn’t you, was like a few years?

JF: Well, I had my arm paralysed. My left arm was paralysed for nearly two years when I was waiting for the – I needed the muscle transfer surgery and we had to see if the muscle worked. My fingers were always working. So I could always practice holding my hand like that, because I believed that the arm would work eventually and it works fine for playing the piano. It’s absolutely useless for anything else. I can’t reach, I can’t do anything, carry but it- the surgeon gave me this motion so…

MS: That’s fantastic.

JF: And yes, in fact it’s, it’s much harder now than it was then when I was fighting it and, “I’m going to get it I’m going to be back at playing the piano.” Those first years were wonderful and very heady but now it’ s- I want to keep it up and you get older of course and so, what is old age, “Are my fingers are working just as well and ahh, this darned arm.” I know I can’t do the octaves there anymore. You have to pick the right repertoire and I’m sure that I had, let’s see, I had six operations. I’m sure it took a toll on somewhere, but I’m back.

MS: But, you transcribed, didn’t you, quite a few works for right hand? I’m fascinated about the Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, that you transcribed for the right, so how did you come to do that?

JF: Very lucky, I had never learned it before.

MS: Yes, yes, of course.

JF: It was always on my wish to do list and I never did, and I had this huge repertoire of concertos which I’ve drastically cut down now but in those days I didn’t, but I always wanted to do the Ravel. You know it was three days after I got back from the hospital that – with the new muscle which I wasn’t allowed to touch for, I think it was three months, I wasn’t allowed to move anything but I knew “Oh what’s gonna happen, this is so boring.” You know, and so I said that there are these darn concertos written, lots of them for the left-handed player, let me just see. And so, I got out the Ravel. And, of course, it goes fine with the right hand, it’s no problem. The melodic parts that you’re supposed to play them with the thumb of the left hand, well I just played it with the thumb of the right hand. And, I think there was one note at the end that was a bit of a problem to get, one note. And so that’s not going to stop me from playing this piece. And I must say that people were very nice, orchestras were very nice. It was just really nice and I got to play the Prokofiev, which was a wonderful piece. And I was all set to do the others that I wanted to. I wanted to play the Britten which is a terrific piece and there’s Korngold, and there’s two by Richard Strauss, one good and one not so good. And so I – no, of course again, people only went for the Ravel and Prokofiev.

MS: It’s a shame.

JF: Yep. So, I actually haven’t played them since because then people are a bit confused, “Well why should she play them now with the right hand? She’s playing with two hands.” I couldn’t do it with the left hand. My left hand isn’t up to doing that kind of fiendishly difficult. It can do, it can do all of the Chopin, Mozart and Beethoven. There’s certain Liszt I can no longer play, certain Brahms – But certainly a left hand concerto would really be pushing it.

MS: So, what are your plans for the future? What concerts have you got coming up, recordings?

JF: Well, I have – very exciting- the recording which means absolutely the most to me that I just made and the edits are going to be sent to me now. The complete Chopin Mazurkas. I’ve wanted to do that all my life and because for me that’s the essence of Chopin. And so, that will be out this fall. And then I’m also gonna be recording Grieg Lyric Pieces, 25 of them, which I love very deeply. And then my next Schubert recording will be out also- so I have 3, they’re all sort of on the boil right now, and as far as concerts go, well, this is a very busy year for me with non-piano activities as well. I have a book that I’m writing so this is being edited now. I’m getting things back from my editor and I having to correct things.

MS: What is the subject?

JF: The subject is me unfortunately for everyone. I do write sort of 3 full chapters of my time with Rubinstein which I hope people are interested in. A little bit about my arm and then a lot of just the everyday life of a touring concert pianist and then – I bring the book up from childhood up until my comeback concert and then I stop there because since then it’s been too much [Laughter] and- what else am I doing? There’s – oh, yes, I have, I have in Germany an Academy that I founded in Bavaria. I sometimes sit on international piano juries, not often, but I go once every two years or so. And I am usually perfectly happy with the winner because the winner is usually a very accomplished pianist, but every single competition my heart is breaking for someone who was eliminated and who I felt had enormous talent, but just not your average, like, competition pianist. You know, too personal. You know, even other members of the jury, to be perfectly honest, they just didn’t like this person so they didn’t mark them well. And I sort of thought like well wonderful. I started an academy and would invite these so called people who got eliminated who I thought should have done better. And I started this about three years ago and some of my kids have gone on to win first prizes all over the place, so. I mean, seriously, international competitions. You know, they just needed a little boost and I know some of my fellow jurors do that. They get in touch with people they like and just say, you know, we believe in you because it can be such a terrible business and the kids all seem to do hundreds of them.

MS: Yes, there’s many more.

JF: Well, there’s many more and just one first prize doesn’t get you anything in this world, you need about ten. I just think it’s the most dreadful profession. I feel so sorry for the kids. I feel sorry for myself that at my age I’m still battling to get concerts, but it wasn’t supposed to be that way. It was supposed to be – Rubinstein always said, “You will see that when you hit age 50 you’re gonna be the Condame of this and that” and well you know, I’m waiting [Laughter] but no. At least I’m lucky that I have a career and I’m able to support myself but the kids, what do they do? And there’s so many more of them.

MS: So many fantastic ones.

JF: Fantastic pianists. The actual, sort of, great talents the Murray Perahias, the Radu Lupus, They’re still few, but they’re there. I find them, you know, and I hoping that the cream rises to the top eventually, and some have, of course. But, there’s not an overabundance of them, but there’s an overabundance of fantastic pianists.

MS: Yes, What does playing the piano mean to you?

JF: It’s my life, of course. It’s sort of – playing the piano is – I always think of extremes. It’s extreme pleasure for me, extremely emotional for me, and there’s nothing more – actually apart from – I love my husband dearly so I’ll say I love to be with him more than anything else, but after him, you know, just spend – practising the piano is just the highlight of my day, every day. I am – even if the world is collapsing all around me, if I practice nicely in the morning some part of me is happy, but the other extreme is – I also think of suffering when I think of the piano. I’m not, I’m not a concert stage fanatic. I don’t – I’m not dying to get out there. I’m thrilled when I’m there and it’s going well but I can be weeks beforehand suffering. I’m not, I’m not a natural performer in that sense of a word. I do suffer, so that’s my extreme, playing piano.

MS: Thank you so much for joining me today.

JF: You’re very welcome.

MS: Thank you.