Attila Pertis and Monika Egri Play the Blue Danube Waltz on a Pleyel Double Grand Piano

My jaw dropped when I saw this video - duo pianists Attila Pertis and Monika Egri purchased for their performance instrument a rare 1904 Pleyel Double Grand Piano. A bit about this siamese-twin piano from their website:

The two keyboards are placed at opposite ends of this 2.5 meter long instrument that weighs nearly 600 kilograms. The brilliance of the design lies in the fact that, although the two pianos are housed in one body, both have their own sets of wires, pedals and mechanism. (With a special switch, the Pleyel design also makes it possible for one of the players to operate the pedals of the other if necessary, and this of course also works the other way round.) At the same time, the casting and the resonance - an important element of the instrument - are common to both. All the sounds produced are emitted in a shared space, the overtones enrich each other, and all of this results in a warm and wonderfully full sound.

Here are Pertis and Egri playing the Blue Danube Waltz:



Another interesting factoid on Pleyels from Wikipedia:

The red spruce used by Pleyel and several other top manufacturers comes from the Fiemme Valley in province of Trento, Italy. Piano-makers are extremely fussy about this. "It has to be from a north-facing tree," explained Sylvan Charles, a master piano builder who supervises the 15 workers in Pleyel's Paris workshop. "The tree has to be a certain age. The direction of the grain and the thickness are also important, but I won’t tell you any more because that is the secret of our sound." He described the Pleyel sound as "round, warm and sensual." Steinway, by contrast, is known for its bright, powerful "singing" sound.

Tal & Groethuysen Duo Live at WGBH on July 23

Tomorrow morning at 11am EDT, duo pianists Tal & Groethuysen will be appearing live in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio in Boston in a performance of piano duet and duo music for the Classics in the Morning program. On the program are Schubert's Fantasia in f minor as well as Victor Babin's Six Etudes for Two Pianos.

You'll get two chances to hear this concert tomorrow: the first (with the live piano duet/duo action) at 11am on WGBH 89.7, the second at 6pm on WGBH All-Classical. Both feeds are available via the WGBH website.

(Thanks, Edgar!)

The 5 Browns: Not Your Average Piano Quintet

I've previously mentioned the importance of piano duet and duo playing, as well as the challenges of music for larger pianistic forces, such as the 2 pianos/8 hands works I played at Eastman last year.

Enter the 5 Browns. Ryan, Melody, Gregory, Deondra and Desirae are five siblings that perform piano ensemble music in various combinations from solo and duet up to works for five pianos. Fresh off their Canadian debut at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival and CBC Radio 2 broadcast, the Juilliard-trained quintet of pianists are set to release their third album, Browns in Blue, on October 2.

Check out the 5 Browns' website for a crash course on how classical artists should be handling their publicity these days--not just a discography, bio, event listings and photos, but embeddable videos, a forum, polls, desktop wallpaper, IM buddy icons, and merchandise.

The 5 Browns make it look easy, but multi-piano works are extremely difficult to prepare and perform. The sheer volume of more than two pianos sounding at the same time creates an incredibly large mass of sound that must be meticulously balanced in rehearsal--in other words, keep down if you don't have the melody and play like hell if you do.

So how do you set up a quintet of Steinways? Take a look at this video of the 5 Browns performing Gerschwin's Rhapsody in Blue arranged for five pianos. Look closely and you'll get a sense of the dense network of visual cues needed to keep a work of this complexity together. Enjoy--links to the Browns' first two albums are also posted below the video.

More Videos

Anderson & Roe Play Barber's Pas De Deux on YouTube

Those of you who enjoyed the Anderson & Roe duo's performance of Libertango may also enjoy this piano duet version of Samuel Barber's Pas de deux on YouTube, with more awesome camera angles and gnarly edits. Those interested in playing the solo piano version of the Pas de deux can find it in the RCM Grade 10 repertoire book, listed below.

Celebration Series, The Piano Odyssey: Piano Repertoire 10 By Rcm Examinations. For Piano. This edition: 3rd. Celebration Series, The Piano Odyssey. Advanced. Level: Grade 10. Book. 168 pages. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company. (CSR10) See more info...