MEISTERWERKE FÜR ZWEI KLAVIERE

Greek pianist Ellada Pavlou based in Vienna and Cypriot pianist Christos Fountos based in London meet and bring to the Viennese audiences a few of the major pieces for two pianos from the 20th Century. Twenty fingers on two same instruments in argument and in agreement – much like humans to whom what truly matters exists beyond arguments, uniting them.
The recital focuses on music written in the 40s and 50s by 5 different composers of 4 nationalities. The listener can experience the differences in sound and aesthetic between the pieces written only a few years apart from one another. One can also hear the influences of one composer to another and get a glimpse of their bond: Poulenc-Stravinsky, Britten-Shostakovich, the latter’s 50th anniversary of death is being honoured around the world this year.
Although the composers are big names in classical music history if you ask someone to name some of their pieces, the works presented by Pavlou and Fountos would not be the ones. And while the pieces are not the composers‘ famous works and they are not the ones most often performed yet they are constructed by unique moments of originality, insight and profoundness poured into them by their creators stimulated by the complex proximity and intimacy of the two-piano union.
Throughout this recital one can witness Stravinsky’s lighter more elegant/lyrical side, Poulenc’s darker, edgy, profound inspiration of almost orchestral sensual grandeur, the sudden contrast between serious and witty — angry and prayer-like in Shostakovich and the elegiac lyricism of Britten adapting masterfully the Chopin-style Polish mazurka in his own harmonic language.

Programme:

I.Stravinsky Sonata for two pianos (1944)
F.Poulenc Sonata for two pianos FP156 (1953)
M.Feldman Two Pianos (1957)
D.Shostakovich Concertino in A moll op.94 (1953)
B.Britten Mazurka Elegiaca op.23 no.2 (1941)
K.Leighton Prelude Hymn and Toccata (1987)