乔治·库克尔著 2023年7月5日

在现有的 chamber music formations, the piano duo represents a bit of an aristocratic exception.

首先, it is technically very challenging, with its request based on maximum rhythmical precision 和 no great means to express the dynamic, agogical, 和 sound variety when paralleled to, 我们说, 弦乐四重奏. Second: it also has some logistical problems. When confronted with the capacities of a “normal” concert venue, the need for two concert pianos of the greatest quality is nearly impossible to obtain outside the top venues in the world.

尽管如此, in the history of music since Bach, 莫扎特, 和 all the subsequent composers, practically everybody got fascinated by this kind of music, 写作的杰作.

It is justifiable to mention the first known stable piano duos: Vronsky 和 Babin, 金和菲茨代尔, 给她披上她和披上她的佩金纳犬, 还有拉贝克姐妹, to mention only a few of the past.

这首钢琴二重奏 Quattro摩尼, in its now nearly decade-old stable formation (pianists 史蒂文·贝克 和 苏珊恩典) is stepping in a tradition not at all easy to follow. But 我们说 it right from the beginning: their incredible array of capacities is strong enough to place them precisely on the top of the piano duos of today. 当然, they deserve to be heard with great attention, even playing the music of sometimes not-so-terribly great composers.

This Bridge Records installment puts together works of some living composers together with some lesser-known names of the past, generally staying in the 20th-century perspective even if with no visible liaison between the choices made.

We start with a lengthy work by John Adams (1947-) called 哈利路亚结 (1998).

The basic idea is a minimalist repetition of a rhythmical cell repeating, 至少理论上是这样, “halle - lu - jah”这个词.” The highly evocative liner notes mention that this work should have three movements. Well, both facts are quite indistinguishable for the listener. Instead, a flow of repeated formulae, slightly changing over time, captures the interest. Even with its 17-minute duration, this is never dull or visibly artificial. Well worth mentioning is the tremendously difficult piano writing, requesting a precision rarely surpassed in the modern literature for two pianos. Here Quattro摩尼 literally shines. This music will probably never be a public pleaser, 但是在这个渲染图中, it is well worth every minute dedicated to it.

A piece by Paul Creston (1906-1985) called Rumba-Tarantella 遵循. While certainly pleasant to listen to, this composer’s music is unfortunately placed in the middle of otherwise highly qualitative scores. Beck 和 Grace nevertheless play it with great “verve” 和 commitment.

Some historically difficult-to-place music of Paul Bowles (1910-1999) 遵循. As were so many other pieces, his 夜之华尔兹 was written for the forecited piano duo 金和菲茨代尔. 这两人, active in New York during many decades during 和 after the Second World War, was a catalyst for many living composers; let us cite Vittorio Rieti, 在许多其他方面.

Having lived in Morocco (和 precisely in Tangiers) most of his life, Bowles was a natural attraction point for the new generations of European 和 American poets, 作家, 和作曲家, all of them in 搜索 of an alternative way to live a free life, quite different from the existing morale 和 values of their time. 奇怪的是, there is no trace of any exoticism in this score 和 no visible rupture with the past in musical terms.

这个作品叫做 Quattro摩尼, written for the Beck 和 Grace piano duo by Paul Moravec (1957-), is the highlight of this CD. 这是一颗真正的宝石, difficult beyond any imagination for the pianists 和 superbly played by them with breathtaking velocity 和 finesse.

最后一部作品， 六幕间剧, is written by the only non-US composer in this installment: Bent Sørensen (1958-). Some of the movements involve a strange, harpsichord-like sound which doubles the piano sound. Unluckily there is no explanation in the booklet of how this was obtained — a real pity.

These six short pieces are very interesting, 他们性格的对比, 和 complete this disc very well. 他们提供钢琴二重奏, 在其他品质中, the possibility to show their lyrical potential as most of the other music presented is of percussive, 金属, 还有好斗的性格.

It is not common nowadays to listen to a CD where there is practically no negative side to criticize, 分数在哪里?, 呈现, 和 the high quality of musical innovation, accompanied by a superior recording quality, 一致. 这很容易成为最高推荐.