Reviews
Jean-Luc Perrot , La Tribune—Le Progrès, May 4, 2010.
(…)The concert began with a performance by Joanna Marcinkowska, who was playing (as she confessed to us, for the first time in her life) a Pleyel pianoforte from Chopin’s times. More and more pianists nowadays are trying to produce sounds as close as possible to those that the composers heard. Accordingly, this graceful instrument with a clear and balanced sound had been selected for the concert. It had been feared that the piano may turn out to be too small for the theater’s large hall, but the excellent acoustics of the venue proved this concern to be unfounded.The Polish pianist had prepared a perfect program consisting of a highly diversified selection of Chopin’s most beautiful pieces, including a nocturne, the Impromptu, the Andante spianato et grande polonaise, a waltz and the scherzo in B flat minor... Joanna Marcinkowska managed to combine a precise melodic line and resonant sound with a rare sense of rhythm, care for details and nuances, and a restrained rubato. Her highly convincing performances struck with her understanding of the bel canto and, what is important for the virtuoso compositions by Chopin, a remarkable simplicity and sincerity. The Fantaisie-Impromptu complemented the recital as the encore(…)
