An online performance by pianists Lucille Chung and Alessio Bax will be aired Jan. 24, 2021, 8 p.m.
An online performance by pianists Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung will be aired Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, at 8 p.m. The event marks the fifth in a series of collaborative online concerts titled ALIVEmusica, presented by the Howland Chamber Music Circle with its co-presenters Newburgh Chamber Music, Pawling Concert Series and Classical WMHT FM.
The concert will be streamed live from the Howland Culture Center in Beacon, N.Y.
Bax and Chung will be performing a piano four hands program, in which they play on the same piano. Piano four hands dates back to the Classical and Romantic periods. Evolving technology led to larger pianos with a greater spectrum of voice and tone, making such performances enchanting.
Liszt and Chopin reportedly sat together reading through the scores of Beethoven symphonies.
In this case, the marriage in real life of these two concert pianists has led to one of the leading piano duos of their generation. To cite the UK magazine Music and Arts: “Theirs is a marriage of wondrous colors and dexterous aplomb, subtly balanced to make a musical performance sound as one.”
Adding to the romance is the program itself: Claude Debussy’s masterful Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, transcribed for four hands by Maurice Ravel, followed by the complete piano four hands version of Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka.
With his lyrical playing, insightful interpretations, and dazzling facility, pianist Alessio Bax is praised for creating “a ravishing listening experience.”
Born in Montreal, Canadian pianist Lucille Chung has been acclaimed for her “stylish and refined” performances by Gramophone. First Prize winner of the Stravinsky International Piano Competition, Chung made her debut at the age of 10 with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
In 2015, the couple was named Johnson-Prothro Artists-in-Residence at SMU Meadows School of the Arts.
Audience members of each organization attend the concert through their respective groups’ own website. A $20 donation in support of the artists and co-sponsors is suggested. For further information, visit howlandmusic.org/ALIVEmusica_HCMC.html.