o What: Vancouver Symphony plays Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos with guest soloists Yukiko Akagi and Alex Alguacil.
o When: 3 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday.
o Where: Skyview High School’s concert hall, 1300 N.W. 139th St., Vancouver.
o Cost: $42 for reserved seats, $29 for general admission, $24 for seniors and $9 for students.
o Information: 360-735-7278 or visit http://vancouversymphony.org/tickets.html.
Fingers will be flying over two keyboards this weekend when the Vancouver Symphony performs Francis Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos. This concerto challenges pianists with dynamic contrasts, fistfuls of notes, lyrical passages, and complex rhythms. It’s a scintillating concoction that featured soloists, Yukiko Akagi and Alex Alguacil, are eager to play. Over the past six months, these two New York-based pianists have been squeezing in practice time between their busy performance schedules.
“We have played a lot of pieces for four hands,” Akagi said. “It’s a lot of fun. When we practice together, we try to sense each other’s feelings in the music. We need to breath together to make an artistic statement with this kind of music.”
For the Poulenc piece, Akagi will play the first piano part and Alguacil the second.
o What: Vancouver Symphony plays Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos with guest soloists Yukiko Akagi and Alex Alguacil.
o When: 3 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday.
o Where: Skyview High School's concert hall, 1300 N.W. 139th St., Vancouver.
o Cost: $42 for reserved seats, $29 for general admission, $24 for seniors and $9 for students.
o Information: 360-735-7278 or visit http://vancouversymphony.org/tickets.html.
“The first piano part is a slightly more difficult,” Alguacil said. “But both piano parts share the same character. Sometimes one pianist has the leading voice and the other accompanies, but they switch these roles back and forth. Both play percussively; both accompany the orchestra and then have a solo part.”
Considerable accolades
Akagi moved from Japan to New York City just before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. She won the First Prize at The Jose Roca International Piano Competition 2006, and placed second at both the Maria Canals International Piano Competition 2005 and the Guerrero International Piano Competition 2006.
Alguacil won the Ricard Viñes International Piano Competition and the Rosalind and Joseph M. Stone Bergen Philharmonic Competition. Alguacil moved from Spain to New York in 2003 and met Akagi when both were pursuing graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music.
Although Akagi and Alguacil have separately worked with Salvador Brotons, this will be the first time that they have performed with him together. Akagi had impressed Brotons at a competition in France, which resulted in an invitation to play with the Vancouver Symphony. She gave a performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto with the orchestra in 2007.
Alguacil delivered a performance of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto with the Vancouver Symphony in 2006. He met Brotons about ten years ago at a competition in which Brotons was on the jury.
“Brotons is a well-known conductor and composer in Spain,” remarked Alguacil. “I have heard him on TV and radio. After I won a major competition, we began doing performances together, and they have been wonderful experiences.”
Akagi and Alguacil are looking forward to meeting with Brotons this week and exchanging their ideas with him about Poulenc’s concerto.
“We are looking forward to playing with the Vancouver Symphony,” Akagi said. “The Poulenc piece isn’t played all that often, but its music is very enjoyable.”
Brotons will conduct all of the pieces on the concert program, which includes Johannes Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. Considered one of the greatest symphonies ever written, it has four-movement work that is laden with lyrical and sometimes dark melodies and topped with a glowing, life-affirming finale.
To open the concert, the orchestra will play the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt. Though Liszt wrote 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies in all, this one is the most famous. Its music has been incorporated in numerous movies including “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and animated cartoons like “Rhapsody Rabbit,” which featured Bugs Bunny as a concert pianist playing the solo piano version of the piece.
