What’s better than one piano? Two pianos! A special duo recital from a husband-and-wife partnership.
What’s better than one piano? Put two pianos together, says Pascal Rogé, and you get so much power and versatility of sound – “you can really feel like you’re an orchestra”.
It’s even more exciting when the two pianists are partners in life as well as in music. “To be able to share music on stage,” says Pascal, “makes the whole story much more personal – it’s a very, very special experience.”
Pascal and Ami Rogé invite you to share that experience in a rare duo recital that brings together the “orchestral” grandeur of German Romanticism and the vibrant colour of French music.
Among the highlights is the duo sonata that eventually became Brahms’s great piano quintet, and two French masterpieces better known as orchestral works. Nestled in the middle are miniatures by Poulenc: a perky waltz and an elegy for the great arts patron, the Princess de Polignac. “Play this elegy,” said Poulenc, “as if improvising, a cigar in your mouth and a glass of cognac on the piano.”
SCHUMANN arr. Debussy Six Etudes in Canon Form, Op.56
BRAHMS Sonata in F minor for two pianos, Op.34b
POULENC Elégie
POULENC The Embarkation for Cythera
DUKAS The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
RAVEL La Valse
Hear Pascal and Ami Rogé in the premiere of Matthew Hindson’s Concerto for two pianos (12, 13 May).