Igor Stravinsky Concerto for two pianos Con moto 00:00 Notturno 05:35 Quattro variazioni 10:05 Preludio e fuga 14:18
Janine Reding & Henry Piette, pianos
Igor Stravinsky's Concerto for Two Pianos was premiered by the composer and his son at the Université des Annales, Paris in November 1935. It is the most substantial of all Stravinsky's compositions for piano. It as monumental, symphonic proportions and is a bravura work of fiendish difficulty. Reding and Piette played it in major venues throughout Europe and gave its first performance in Japan at the first Osaka Festival in 1958. Following the opening Con moto, a spacious Notturno is presented with a memorable ostinato figure. The composer described this song-like second movement as ‘after-dinner music; a digestive to the larger movements’. Stravinsky has pointed out that he was ‘steeped in the variations of Beethoven and Brahms' at the time of composing this concerto and the four variations which form the third movement are scherzando-like and contain the theme which is used as a fugue subject for the slow finale. Of Reding and Piette, the Daily Telegraph wrote, 'It would be hard to overpraise their brilliant performances' in the Stravinsky's Concerto.