Juilliard: Duo Gagnant: French Music for Two Pianos

Yesterday evening, I went to Juilliard for the first time this season to hear a performance given by the Collaborative Piano Department of works for two pianos, all of them by French composers.  Usually, the recitals staged by the department feature the pianists as accompanists either to vocalists or to other instrumentalists, but on this occasion they played in tandem with one another.  The program was entitled Duo Gagnant, which could loosely be translated as "Winning Duets."

The program consisted of some of the repertoire's most famous works interspersed with several that were lesser known.  It consisted of the following pieces:

• Francis Poulenc: L’embarquement pour Cynthère performed by Jonathan Feldman, department chair, and doctoral student Dan K. Kurland

• Claude Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’une faune performed by Michał Biel and faculty member Brian Zeger

• Cécile Chaminade: Duo Symphonique, Op. 117, performed by Dror Baitel and Nathan Raskin

• Jean Françaix: Huit Dances Exotiques performed by Cherie Roe and doctoral student Arthur Williford

• Camille Saint-Saëns: Danse Macabre performed by Jinhee Park and Ho Jae Lee

• Claude Debussy: Petite Suite performed by Katelan Terrell and Michał Biel

• Maurice Ravel: La Valse performed by Sora Jung and Adam Rothenberg

Of course, it was fun to once again hear the crowd pleasers - Debussy's Prélude à l’après-midi d’une faune, Ravel's La Valse, and most of all Saint-Saëns's Danse Macabre - but it was the less familiar works that most interested me.  I had never before heard Debussy's Petite Suite in its original arrangement for four hands.  It was much different than the work I normally associate with that composer; this was much gentler in tone.  Poulenc's 1951 L’embarquement pour Cynthère took its title from a 1717 painting by Watteau of the same name and could so be seen as a form of tone poem.  It was certainly a very rousing piece and sounded at times almost like a swirling dance tune.

The recital lasted about 70 minutes and was extremely enjoyable.  All the pianists were uniformly excellent and received a well earned ovation from the enthusiastic audience at the end of the performance.