Performance: Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo plays works by Conlon Nancarrow

Related exhibition: Impossible Music

Sat. Sept 30, 6:30pm-8pm

Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo plays works by Conlon Nancarrow

Location the Kresge Theatre CFA

RSVP on Eventbrite

The Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo began a transcription project of Conlon Nancarrow’s player piano studies in 1998, while in graduate school at the University of Buffalo. The works explore dizzyingly complex rhythmic combinations (often canons with the voices at different speeds) and extremely fast tempos. The Duo will perform 12 of these Studies for four-hands at one piano and one for two pianos. They can be very directly jazz-influenced (3 are from his early “Boogie Woogie Suite”) or highly abstract (a canon where the “melody" is constructed out of long and short repeated notes). After Ligeti discovered Nancarrow’s music in 1981, he said “ His music is so utterly original, enjoyable, perfectly constructed, but at the same time emotional... For me it’s the best music of any living composer today.” Though his Three Pieces for Two Pianos (1976) pre-dates this discovery, there are many connections. The Duo will play the middle movement, "Self-portrait with Reich and Riley (and Chopin in the background)", which is to be played “as fast as possible—or even faster” and includes canons and phasing, as well as his signature “blocked key” technique and a reference to the end of Chopin’s B-flat minor Sonata. Steve Reich’s ground-breaking minimalist piece from 1967 requires the two performers to pull apart unison patterns as slowly as possible before locking into a new combination. This concert will be a rare opportunity to hear this music performed live. The Duo last performed in Pittsburgh in 2017. 

PROGRAM

Conlon Nancarrow: Studies for Player Piano #3b, #3d, #3c (arr. Amy Williams) 10'

Steve Reich: Piano Phase (1967) 20'

Nancarrow: Studies for Player Piano #4, 6, 32, 18, 15 (arr. Erik Oña, Helena Bugallo and Yvar Mikhashoff) 12'

— 15 minute intermission —

Nancarrow: Study for Player Piano #20 (arr. Helena Bugallo) 6'

Gyorgy Ligeti: Self-portrait with Reich and Riley (with Chopin in the background) (1976) 6’

Nancarrow: Study for Player Piano #44 (arr. Helena Bugallo) 10'

Nancarrow: Study for Player Piano #19, #14, #9 (arr. Helena Bugallo) 8’

BIO

Hailed as “beyond brilliant” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and “simply stunning” (Gramophone), the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo has been presenting innovative programs of contemporary music around the world since 1995. Helena Bugallo and Amy Williams perform cutting-edge new works and masterpieces of the 20th century for piano four-hands and two pianos. They have premiered dozens of works, many of which were written for the Duo, and they have worked directly with such renowned composers as David Lang, Louis Andriessen, Lukas Foss, Tania León, Bernard Rands, Carola Bauckholt, Peter Eötvös, and Steve Reich. They also collaborate with composers who explore new approaches to the piano through multimedia applications, electronics, and extended techniques. They frequently perform with additional players in works for multiple keyboards, chamber works for duo piano and instruments, and concertos.

As part of their mission to expand the repertoire for piano duet, the Duo undertook an extensive transcription project of the Studies for Player Piano by Conlon Nancarrow. This resulted in their critically acclaimed debut recording of Nancarrow's works for piano duet and solo piano (Wergo, 2004). Their subsequent CD “Stravinsky in Black and White” (Wergo, 2007) includes the composer’s own arrangements for piano duet and two pianos, two of which are world premiere recordings. It was named one of the “Essential Stravinsky Recordings” by Gramophone. Wergo will release a second volume of Stravinsky transcriptions in early 2018. The Duo has also recorded works by Kurtág, Varèse, Feldman, Ginastera, Liderman, Williams, Oña, and Bartók.

The Duo was formed in 1995, when Williams and Bugallo were graduate students at the University at Buffalo. They soon became regular performers at the June In Buffalo Festival, where they worked directly with numerous emerging and established composers. They began their Nancarrow project shortly thereafter, leading to their first performances in Europe (at the Aarhus Festival in Denmark in 1998) and South America (at the Ciclo de conciertos de música contemporánea in Buenos Aires in 2000). They were fellows at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany in 2000 and 2001. Other feature appearances include Miller Theatre, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Ojai Festival, CAL Performances, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Muziekgebouw aan't IJ in Amsterdam, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, MusikTriennale Köln, Festival Attacca in Stuttgart, Institut Hongrois in Paris, and Tampere Biennale in Finland. Avid proponents of contemporary music, they frequently present master classes and lecture-demonstrations at colleges and universities in the Americas and Europe.

In addition to the Duo, Amy is a composer, festival organizer and professor of composition/theory at the University of Pittsburgh. Helena is a piano teacher at the Musik Akademie Basel and a musicologist primarily researching the music of Conlon Nancarrow.