Martina Filjak @ Phillips

Charles T. Downey, At Phillips, pianist Martina Filjak offers unexpected interpretations of familiar works
Washington Post, May 14, 2013

Soler, Keyboard Sonatas 1-15, M. Filjak (Naxos, 2011)

Martina Filjak offered some surprises during her recital Sunday afternoon at the Phillips Collection. The Croatian-born pianist gave sometimes unexpected interpretations of familiar works, paired with pieces that were just unexpected. She also played with the una corda pedal halfway down most of the time, enough to keep the hammers striking all three strings but shifting their position just slightly. The goal was to force this often hard-edged instrument into a different realm of sound, and it worked.

Filjak opened with a Mozart sonata (B-flat major, K. 333), one of his sunniest and most welcoming, and she set the first and third movements at an easy-paced tempo that sounded happy, not manic. [...]
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Martina Filjak, piano
Music by Mozart, Schumann, Scriabin, Prokofiev
Phillips Collection