One piano, four hands: Chamber Music Society presents concert by piano duo
When the piano became the instrument of choice for the newly powerful European middle class in the early 19th century, it wasn’t just for its versatility as a solo instrument.
Even with the smaller square pianos of the era, there was enough room for two people to sit down in front of it and play the instrument at the same time. Composers wrote for four hands at one piano, and often would provide four-hand versions of their symphonies, knowing that not everyone could afford to go to an orchestral concert.
It also became part of courtship rituals, as young people could sit close to one another and find out just how suitable they might be together as they played through some music at the keyboard.
While things have changed since then, and making music at home is not as regular a feature of domestic life as it once was, there nevertheless is a large repertory of fine music available for this combination, and this week, the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach will present two pianists with busy solo careers who know how to get these collaborative works across.
Juho Pohjonen and Wu Qian, who hail from Helsinki and Shanghai respectively, will appear at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Norton Museum of Art.
The program includes some of the “Slavonic Dances,” the pieces that made Antonín Dvořák's reputation in the late 1870s (he wrote two different sets of them). They originally were written as duets for two pianists sitting at one piano, and their popularity led Dvořák to orchestrate them, which is how they are known today.
But originally, these delightful works, redolent of Dvořák's powerful melodic gift and his evocation of Czech folk styles, were written for one piano, four hands, and that’s how they’ll be heard Thursday.
“In a sense, playing four hands is like a dance, where the slightest gesture or shift in balance can influence the movement and flow of the music," Pohjonen and Wu said in a joint prepared statement. “It's this closeness and immediacy of interaction that allows us to discover new facets of our musicianship, and ultimately, it is what makes each performance with one another a unique and exhilarating experience.”
Another work better-known in orchestral guise is Claude Debussy’s “Petite Suite,” composed in 1889 and orchestrated later by composer Henri Büsser. Its first movement, “En Bâteau,” evocative of a day out in a boat as told by poet Paul Verlaine, is widely familiar from its arrangement in countless versions for solo instrument and piano.
Two works by Felix Mendelssohn also are on the program: the Andante and Allegro Brillant (Op. 92), and the Andante and Variations (Op. 83a). The pianists said that these works "exude both the depth and the sparkling virtuosity” of Mendelssohn’s compositional style, and add that the composer premiered the work in 1841 with Clara Schumann, one of the greatest pianists of the 19th century.
Rounding out the program is a four-hand work by the French composer and pianist Cécile Chaminade, who in her day (1857-1944) was one of the best-known providers of elegant salon music for piano. So popular was she that Chaminade Clubs were formed across the United States, and Chaminade herself made a tour of the U.S. in 1908.
Pohjonen and Wu will play Chaminade’s “Six Pièces Romantiques,” which evoke different displays at the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris.
“Each piece on this program complements the others by offering a different perspective on the emotional and expressive capabilities of piano duet literature,” Wu and Pohjonen said.
Tickets for the concert Thursday night are $75. They can be had by calling 561-379-6773 or visiting cmspb.org.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Chamber Music Society hosts piano duo in concert of four-hand works
