CANCELLED: Shalamov Piano Duo / Pianomania

She is Russian, while he comes from Bulgaria: both in their private lives and at the piano, Alina Shalamova and Nikolay Shalamov are a duo. Their career began in 2015, when they won first prize at the ARD International Music Competition, which to date has only been awarded twice in the category Piano Duet. In tonight’s concert, the two pianists combine duos from Russia’s Romantic era, which form the focus of this season’s »Pianomania« series, with the first performance of a piece by contemporary composer Sofia Gubaidulina.

The stupendous virtuosity of the Shalamov Piano Duo is heard to the best advantage in Rachmaninov’s notoriously difficult music, e.g. in the lively dance rhythms of the first suite of his »Fantaisie-Tableaux«. Nikolai Medtner composed in a very similar style: he wrote a series of enchanting pianistic miniatures, among which is the »Russian Round Dance«. Borodin’s »Polovetsian Dances« include Oriental sounds, while Mussorgsky’s »Night on the Bare Mountain« is a true piece of musical pandemonium. The duo ends its recital with Sofia Gubaidulina’s »Fantasie«, where they enter the complex sound worlds of modern music.