28 May 2017
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
CIT Cork School of Music Artist-in-Residence Alex Petcu will be performing Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (1937) in the Curtis Auditorium, CIT Cork School of Music, Union Quay, Cork City on Sunday 4th June at 4:30pm, free admission.
Alongside pianists Dr. Gabriela Mayer, (head of department, Keyboard Studies CSM) & Gary Beecher (winner of the Irish Freemason’s Young Musician of the Year), percussionists Alex Petcu and Stephen Kelly (CSM lecturer in percussion & member of the RTE Concert Orchestra), will perform this virtuosic work as well as Ravel’s “Alborada Del Gracioso” in a transcription for marimba duo.
The Bartok sonata has long been hailed as a masterpiece of chamber music, with virtuosic piano writing intertwined with timpani, xylophone and a battery of percussion instruments. It is reported that the demands were so great that an early performance of the work used 6 percussionists! Alex & Stephen will play over ten instruments between them.
Ravel’s “Alborada del Gracioso” was originally part of his Miroirs suite for solo piano. It was arranged by the Safri Duo for two marimbas, and will be performed by Alex & Stephen as a curtain raiser to the afternoons concert.
Above: A video of Bartok’s Sonata for two pianos & percussion.
This particular example was recorded The Jordan Hall in The New England Conservatory by Yukiko Takagi, Stephen Drury, piano; Scott Deal, Stuart Gerber, percussion
