This 31-page book of four hand piano music is sheer FUN with a capital F. The composer Heleen Verleur knows just what pianists love playing: music that is easy to read, sounds hard to play, but is so much fun that you don’t want to stop until it ends.

Commissioned by the Groninger Piano Festival 2017 where it was premiered, “Piano Animals” is a piece that belongs in every quatre-mains repertoire. It’s programmatic, with images and sounds of animals in their environments. The 452 measures are packed with variety and contrast. The primo and secondo are duetting with each other, interacting in every which way possible, making the experience of playing together truly exhilarating.

The duet opens with monkeys scrambling about. Both primo and secondo play quarter notes in staccato with accents and grace notes here and there. Anyone who has visited a zoo, gone on safari, or watched monkeys in action will relate to the 68 measures of nonstop activity, except for a few surprises requiring both pianists to stop playing and call “ae, oe” or clap their hands, or stomp their feet in unison.

No sooner do the monkeys leave, the wild pigs march in. They move in one direction looking for food and then turn around to hunt in the other direction. Black key clusters, right hand, left hand mimic the way they move about.

Then it’s whale watch season. The whales waltz in the ocean, whether Pacific or Atlantic, they know they’re being watched in Hawaii between November and May and the north eastern coast of the USA from May to October.

When I received the book in November 2021, I pondered how I would play it. Do I record myself playing one part and then play against the recording? If not, self record, how would I find a pianist who would be willing to collaborate?

How would I find a pianist who could sightread and would sit next to me, not socially distanced, and play together? On Oahu, Camilla and I sat in front of her piano while her husband Mark turned pages and recorded the first and only time we ever played together. I had just met her for the first time that day.

[YouTube Video will be released on Sunday 8 May 2022 at NOON EDT ]

https://concertblog.wordpress.com/2022/05/08/review-piano-animals-duet-by-heleen-verleur/

Op woensdag 4 november 2020 was ik te gast op Archies’s Ship om mee te werken aan een benefietconcert voor Music for Children. Helaas was het beeld via Youtube niet helemaal scherp, het lijkt wel een beetje op een schilderij van Monet. Via de onderstaande link kun je de gehele uitzending terugzien en horen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKSPuIIQ0ss&fbclid=IwAR2rnRlFzVInrVvovPfY2m8J6dV9lCcHy6D7URVVmGKHIKRrUYbrY7IatyY

Imagine: a colleague from Italy has found a Sonata by an unknown composer in the Parma library, but he suspects that it is a sonata by the composer Domenico Scarlatti. He sends me a copy of what he found. I play the music: it definitely has characteristics of my favorite composer Scarlatti. The repetitions, the playfulness. It also seems to feature a motif that resembles a Neapolitan folk song. (Although Scarlatti lived in Spain for much of his life, he was originally from Naples.) What a discovery! Via this link you can hear part of the sonata. It is not a top recording and I have to study it a bit more, but I just couldn’t wait. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldJ07MrIG_g

De 18e eeuwse Napolitaanse componist Domenico Scarlatti heeft 550 Sonates geschreven voor zijn leerlinge Maria Barbara, de latere koningin van Spanje. Toen zij trouwde met de Spaanse kroonprins vertrok hij met haar mee naar het Spaanse hof, waar hij bijna 38 jaar Sonates voor haar schreef die zij -naar het schijnt- op virtuoze wijze ten gehore kon brengen. In de Sonates kun je invloeden horen van Spaanse volksmuziek. Maar in deze sonate hoor ik ook duidelijk een Napolitaanse invloed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldJ07MrIG_g