Spellbinding piano duo takes stage again with CSO

Spellbinding piano duo takes stage again with CSO

The spellbinding Silver-Garburg Piano Duo returns to Christchurch to combine forces with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in the second of the Lamb & Hayward Masterworks series on April 18.

Sense of Place furthers the theme of identity set out in the first of the CSO’s Masterworks series, opening with Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes which portrays the ever-changing moods of the ocean, a constant companion of all New Zealanders, and then continuing on with Bohuslav Martinů’s Concerto for Two Pianos H.292, with Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg.

Martinů composed the concerto in 1943, shortly after he moved to the United States from Czechoslovakia. The music touches on a range of musical influences, including jazz, tango and bohemian folk, reflecting the colourful diverse identities of the immigrants who uprooted their lives and set sail for the New World in the 1930s and 40s.

“We are very happy to come back to play in Christchurch for a second time,” said Gil Garburg. “We look forward to playing the very demanding Martinů concerto with this wonderful ensemble of excellent musicians.

The last time the husband and wife piano duo were in Christchurch to perform with the CSO was in 2012, when they played Mozart’sConcerto for Two Pianos in E Flat Major in Classical Beauty.

A reviewer remarked that he was “absolutely amazed” by “their ability to synchronize their playing [as] they knew precisely what each other was about to do.”

Completing the concert programme will be Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 op. 56 in A Minor, inspired by the composer’s twilight visit to the ruins of a chapel in the Holyrood Palace, the seat of the Kings and Queens of Scotland. It served as headquarters for Bonnie Prince Charlie during the nationalistic Jacobite uprisings in the 18th century. The atmospheric piece is commonly known as the “Scottish” because of the sense of place that it invokes and is, arguably, one of Mendelssohn’s finest orchestral works.

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