
Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe started off the program with "Hungarian Dances" by Brahms. Then they played Brahms' Piano Sonata for Two Pianos in F minor, Op. 34b. These pieces were the actual compositions by the great composer. However, the second half of the concert was Anderson and Roe showing off their own composing and interpreting chops as they freely "did their own thing" with Brahms' Hungarian Dance themes as well as pop music from the 20th and 21st centuries. It was rather entertaining to watch these two at the same piano when their parts crossed and it looked like they would get their arms all tied up in knots. Or while playing at separate pianos and they really let loose with scales and arpeggios going up and down the entire length of the pianos. They had such a range from gentle and lyrical pianissimos to grand and athletic fortissimos. They really knew how to exploit the scope of expression on the piano and brought new understanding to me of the piano's percussive possibilities.
One of my favorite pieces was "Let It Be" by the Beatles. They explained in the introduction that they picked up on the Gospel piano style that Paul McCartney originally wrote into the song and expanded it. Wow! Did they ever. They took the melodies and the few chord progressions and indeed expanded those ideas with dueling pianos going to it at full throttle.
The audience was enthusiastic and gave them quite the ovation. The Duo ended up giving three encores including "America" from "West Side Story" by Leonard Bernstein and "What a Wonderful World" made famous by Louis Armstrong. Finally, the audience let them finish the evening and we all went home.
I have to say that I was fascinated with their footwork. There was a little black box gadget on the floor at the left of the piano pedals. It allowed them to use their feet to press a button to turn pages on the computer tablets where they read the music. The Tablets were discreetly placed on top of the keyboards where they were hardly noticeable. I am sure they just used the music to keep them on track in case. It was obvious that they had the music memorized.
Gotta love technology. I definitely need one of those Tablets with the black box foot pedal to turn the pages. So cool! (Just wish it also had magic powers to turn me into a piano virtuoso!)
P.S. They even have scores of their compositions for sale on their web site.