Search - Pierce & Jonas Piano Duo;Joshua Pierce (duo-pianist);Dorothy Jonas (duo-pianist) :: Mendelssohn: Concerto No.1 in E major for Two Pianos; Concerto No.2 in A-flat major for Two Pianos

From a strictly creative point of view, Felix Mendelssohn may have been the greatest musical prodigy of all time. The modern view of Mendelssohn as the creator of some pretty salon music in the vein of the Songs Without Words misses 90% of what this one-man musical world was about. Mendelssohn the symphonist, Mendelssohn the chamber musician, Mendelssohn the choral composer, Mendelssohn the inventor of modern conducting, and above all, Mendelssohn the virtuoso pianist, were all facets of the musical personality of this single most dynamic and influential figure in central European early nineteenth century music. In effect, Mendelssohn by his example, by his performing ability and by the impact of his music changed European musical life in ways that remain the norm for the world of classical music. Those years, when Mendelssohn appeared on the scene like a shooting star, were the heyday of the brilliante virtuoso pianist/composers like Czerny, Kalkbrenner, Moscheles, Thalberg, Weber, Reinecke and many others. Mendelssohn, who appeared at an incredibly young age amidst this company, held his own as both a performer of tremendous ability and a composer of virtuosic keyboard music in the brilliante style. Excellent examples of this can be found on Joshua Pierce s MSR release Rondo Brilliant [MS1196]. In the case of the music at hand, just listen to the steady, almost non-stop, stream of double notes in the E major Concerto or the persistent virtuosity in the A-flat major. Mendelssohn s London debut, which established him in England in a way unmatched by any other composer for generations, consisted of his own Two Piano Concerto in A-flat (performed with Ignaz Moscheles), Weber's Concertstuck and a sensational performance of the Beethoven Emperor Concerto! PIERCE & JONAS have been called consummate technicians with marvelous articulation and crystalline performances... the ultimate in crispness, producing performances that go far beyond documentation by Fanfare Magazine. While the San Francisco Chronicle has praised their Exceptional ensemble and glitter, New York Newsday has said that they displayed that sort of emotional and interpretive union that must be second nature to a two piano team. The Washington Post called them skilled and idiomatic and The New York Times described them as technically ingenious...a hand in glove performance . Turok s Choice has said of the duo: No performers have done more to bring 20th-century repertory for two pianos and orchestra to the listener s attention than the duo-piano team of Pierce and Jonas. One of the most imaginative and compelling two piano teams around, Pierce and Jonas have been successfully performing and recording the unusual and neglected two-piano repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries since the mid-1980 s. The duo has appeared with many symphony orchestras world-wide including those of Houston, San Antonio, Mexico City and Luxembourg as well as the Royal Philharmonic, the London Philharmonia, the National Symphony of Polish Radio and Television, (Katowice), Luxembourg Radio Symphony, the Slovak Philharmonic, State Philharmonic of Kosice, Czech Radio Symphony of Prague, the Orchestra da Camera di Roma, the Chicago Sinfonietta, San Antonio Symphony, the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York and Utah Symphony. Among their many recent performances include concert appearances in San Diego, CA, Tijuana, Baja Mexico, Bratislava, Slovakia and various cities in the Czech Republic, in performances Mozart s Two Piano Concerto in E-flat K365. Their American performances of this work prompted Ken Smith of the New Jersey Star Ledger to write: Pierce and Jonas work marvelously in their framework, trading the musical material back and forth comfortably without leaving seams in the textures, yet shaping