When you go to a concert by Richard Mapp and Emma Sayers, you get not just two outstanding single pianists, but also a pair of piano-duettists, and, when pianos permit, a first-class piano duo team. Richard and Emma have been working together as pianists and recitalists for close to ten years. They are in great demand not only as a duo/duet ensemble but also as soloists, as accompanists, and as performers of high stature in a variety of chamber music ensembles.
As well as Schubert’s Lebensstürme movement - a rarely heard but powerful sonata-piece for four hands - Richard and Emma are offering Poulenc’s sardonic Duet Sonata and three witty items by the American composer Samuel Barber.
The Piano Duo works in the second half are by Bartók (from Mikrokosmos), and a tightly compressed set of flamboyant variations on a Paganini theme by Polish composer Lutoslawski, written when he was hiding from Nazi occupying forces during WW2.
Two special items will be excitingly unknown for many. Not only do they offer new experiences, but they help to confirm the NZIPF as a New Zealand event, since they are by two well-known New Zealand composers. The first is Variations on a Prayer for piano-duet by Kenneth Young (“a wonderfully evocative piece” according to John Button of The Dominion Post), and the second is an arrangement of Anthony Ritchie's Piano Concerto No. 3 for two pianos (which was premiered by Emma Sayers in 2009).
“Beautifully integrated playing . . .” The Dominion Post
Programme:
Schubert - Allegro in A minor (Lebenssturme)
Ken Young - Variations on a Prayer
Samuel Barber - three pieces from Souvenirs
Poulenc - Sonata
Interval
Anthony Ritchie - Piano Concerto No. 3
Bartok - Six pieces from Mikrokosmos
Lutoslawski - Variations on a theme of Paganini
Start time
April 21, 2012 6:30PM
Location
Concert Chamber