The Schumann Project is Record of the Week on the CBC!

So honored to have my album The Schumann Project, Volume 1 as “Record of the Week” on CBC’s In Concert with Paolo Pietropaolo! The program airs noon ET on Sunday, November 7th, and you can listen at the CBC website.

The CBC’s website describes Pietropaolo’s program as: “The ‘best of the best’ live classical music — that’s the heart and soul of In Concert. Gorgeous chamber works, the world’s finest orchestras, and intimate recitals featuring some of Canada’s best young musicians on the brink of stardom. You’ll hear a carefully curated blend of classical hits along with new brand new discoveries presented with passion and rare insight by Paolo Pietropaolo.”

Thank-you again, Paolo, for your kind appraisal!

For an archive of the episode’s playlist, click here.

New Album: Reimagine Beethoven and Ravel

Inna Faliks breaks new ground with REIMAGINE: BEETHOVEN & RAVEL – 9 WORLD PREMIERES released June 11, 2021 on Navona Records, an homage to Beethoven and Ravel which manages to do the impossible: be breathtakingly innovative while remaining respectful to the source material.

Nine contemporary composers, including Richard Danielpour, Paola Prestini, Billy Childs, and Timo Andres, were commissioned to craft responses to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Bagatelles, op. 126 (incidentally, the master’s favorite) as well as Maurice Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit. The results are exhilarating, not least owing to Faliks’s stunningly precise and sensitive pianistic interpretation: the Ukrainian-born American pianist ties together Classical, Romantic and modern pieces with disarming nonchalance and rock-solid technical skill. Defying the challenge of uniting three centuries of musical styles and social commentary, as well as producing an album during a global pandemic with the help of Yamaha’s Disklavier technology, REIMAGINE proudly raises a monument not only to the genius of Beethoven and Ravel, but also to the perseverance and verve of some of today’s most exciting and important composers. Billy Childs’ track, “Pursuit”, was be released as a single on May 28th.

Purchase or stream now on all platforms.

Atlanta Audio Club Review

By Phil Muse

BEETHOVEN: PIANO SONATA NO.32, POLONAISE, FANTAISIE, “EROICA” VARIATIONS

“Inna Faliks, an American pianist of Ukrainian origin, has already won many honors in competitions, given numerous master classes, and taken up residencies in conservatories and universities on three continents. What distinguishes her from other keyboard artists with impressive resumes is a keen perception of the harmonic and physical structure of the music she plays and an unerring ability to convey this to us in terms of emotion, clarity, and style. She puts them over in one irresistible package better than anyone you are likely to encounter. The fact that she is a Yamaha Artist also plays a part, as the beautifully defined registration of her instrument seems to free her to concentrate on matters of interpretation and communication.”

Links to all Corona Fridays performances:

Since March 20, 2020, Inna has been presenting short informal concerts from her home, dubbed “Corona Fridays.” Here are the 12 installments, thus far, of the video series – written about beautifully in this article on the Ampersand blog. Each episode features music that is newer, older – and words, of some kind – whether poetry that stands on its own, or is part of the piece, as in the case of Veronika Krausas’s “Master and Margarita” Suite.

Corona Fridays 1: Shchedrin, Chopin, and more 

Corona Fridays 2: Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and Chopin

Corona Fridays 3: Beethoven, Golub, Danielpour, and more

Corona Fridays 4: Pajama Children’s Edition

Corona Fridays 5: Beethoven, Paganini-Liszt, and poetry by Jesse Ball

Corona Fridays 6: Mozart, Takemitsu, and Chopin

Corona Fridays 7: Pajama Children’s Edition

Corona Fridays 8: Tchaikovsky and Freidlin

Corona Fridays 9: Ljova and Wieck-Schumann

Corona Fridays 10: Krausas and Wieck-Schumann

Corona Fridays 11: Krausas, Ljova, and Liszt

Corona Fridays 12: Kids Edition

Corona Fridays 14: Scarlatti and Maya Miro Johnson

Corona Fridays 15: Pajama Fridays with Frida and Nathaniel

Corona Fridays 16: Chopin Etude Sandwich

Corona Fridays 17: Schumann, Rachmaninoff

Corona Fridays 18: Curtis Summerfest Young Composers Celebration 

Corona Fridays 19: Pajama Fridays Edition: Schubert, Mark Carlson, Beethoven. Poetry by Helen Winslow and Carl Sandburg read by Frida and Nathaniel

Corona Fridays 20:  Brahms, Tamir Hendelman, Beethoven

Corona Fridays 21: Chopin, William Carlos Williams, Richard Danielpour

Corona Fridays 22 :Beethoven, Paola Prestini, Oni Buchanan poem

Corona Fridays 23: Rilke poem and Chopin (Polonaise-Fantasie)

Corona Fridays 24: Ravel and Timo Andres 

Corona Fridays 25: Friday the 13th Edition. Emily Dickinson poem, Chick Corea, Franz Liszt

Corona Fridays 26: Giraud, David Serkin Ludwig, Brahms

Corona Fridays 27: Brahms, Danielpour, Corea, Gershwin

Corona Fridays 28: Waltzes by Brahms, Krausas, Tchaikovsky

  1. La Campanella, Paganini - Liszt Inna Faliks 4:53
  2. Rzewski "The People United Shall Never Be Defeated" (excerpt, improvised cadenza) Inna Faliks 8:36
  3. Beethoven Eroica Variations Inna Faliks 9:59
  4. Gershwin: Prelude 3 in E-flat Minor Inna Faliks 1:25
  5. Mozart Piano Concerto #20 - II Inna Faliks with Chamber Orchestra of St. Matthews 10:27
  6. Gaspard de la Nuit (1908) : Scarbo - Ravel Inna Faliks 9:07
  7. Sirota by Lev 'Ljova' Zhurbin Inna Faliks 7:45