May 24, 2011
(click on image to return)
The Raim-Wehr Duo, May 14, 2011
A
"piano duet" sounds pretty ordinary, right? Two people plunking
out Chopsticks. Ah, but "four-hand piano" is something much more
complex, involving the creativity of the great composers. Those
that the audience heard on May 14 seemed to have delighted in this
genre, and the concertgoers certainly did. David Allen Wehr, who
was the male half of the Raim-Wehr Duo, promised at the start of the
program that we would have fun, and indeed the music and the technique
were equally a pleasure.
Franz Schubert's energetic March Militaire was first on the program, and it did not take us long to realize how a four-hand piano piece worked. Mr. Wehr was on the left side of the bench, playing the lower notes, while Cynthia Raim was on the right side playing the higher notes. Keep in mind that the two facing pages of score were played simultaneously, keeping expert page turner Jesse Topper extremely busy. Also, note that we listeners were hearing four-part harmony; these pieces were all rich in depth.
Next came two duets by Rachmaninoff, introduced by Mr. Wehr with a delicious anecdote. Rachmaninoff, a young man fresh out of music conservatory, landed a job at a girls' school. It's probably no surprise that he wrote a goodly number of duets that would require him to sit next to a young female pupil! The pieces were light and romantic and very pleasurable, but by no means simple. In the same vein, Gabriel Fauré's six-section suite called Dolly, dedicated to the young daughter of a singer he knew, were charming and clever, surely enjoyed by the child who heard a waltz dedicated to her dog. Several of the pieces required careful coordination of the pianists' hands so as not to get in the way of each other, but they didn't miss a note.
The first half of the program ended with three Slavonic dances by Antonin Dvorak, always audience favorites. We learned that Dvorak's public breakthrough came through Brahms' singling him out for attention, and at the end of our program we heard Brahms' own Hungarian dances. Clearly Eastern European melodies inspired 19th century composers.
The second half began with a completely different set of songs: Two dazzling jazz versions of traditional spirituals--Nobody Knows the Trouble and I Want Jesus to Walk with Me--arranged by Joe Utterback, who played in our Series some years ago. Wow! I felt that we were walking through New Orleans' French Quarter. The audience was left smiling. The evening ended with Brahms, including the two lively Hungarian dances noted above and sixteen (count 'em, sixteen) waltzes, each one quite short and different. They sounded in no way like Strauss waltzes--much more original and varied.
Cynthia Raim and David Allen Wehr are superb performers as well as terrific entertainers. Their program was a fine way to end our season.
Nancy MacRae, Schellsburg
Franz Schubert's energetic March Militaire was first on the program, and it did not take us long to realize how a four-hand piano piece worked. Mr. Wehr was on the left side of the bench, playing the lower notes, while Cynthia Raim was on the right side playing the higher notes. Keep in mind that the two facing pages of score were played simultaneously, keeping expert page turner Jesse Topper extremely busy. Also, note that we listeners were hearing four-part harmony; these pieces were all rich in depth.
Next came two duets by Rachmaninoff, introduced by Mr. Wehr with a delicious anecdote. Rachmaninoff, a young man fresh out of music conservatory, landed a job at a girls' school. It's probably no surprise that he wrote a goodly number of duets that would require him to sit next to a young female pupil! The pieces were light and romantic and very pleasurable, but by no means simple. In the same vein, Gabriel Fauré's six-section suite called Dolly, dedicated to the young daughter of a singer he knew, were charming and clever, surely enjoyed by the child who heard a waltz dedicated to her dog. Several of the pieces required careful coordination of the pianists' hands so as not to get in the way of each other, but they didn't miss a note.
The first half of the program ended with three Slavonic dances by Antonin Dvorak, always audience favorites. We learned that Dvorak's public breakthrough came through Brahms' singling him out for attention, and at the end of our program we heard Brahms' own Hungarian dances. Clearly Eastern European melodies inspired 19th century composers.
The second half began with a completely different set of songs: Two dazzling jazz versions of traditional spirituals--Nobody Knows the Trouble and I Want Jesus to Walk with Me--arranged by Joe Utterback, who played in our Series some years ago. Wow! I felt that we were walking through New Orleans' French Quarter. The audience was left smiling. The evening ended with Brahms, including the two lively Hungarian dances noted above and sixteen (count 'em, sixteen) waltzes, each one quite short and different. They sounded in no way like Strauss waltzes--much more original and varied.
Cynthia Raim and David Allen Wehr are superb performers as well as terrific entertainers. Their program was a fine way to end our season.
Nancy MacRae, Schellsburg