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The Duo Scarbó piano combo of Elena Hammel and Laura Sánchez is booked for Thursday, June 21st, 2007 in Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie, NYC.
"Thursday June 21st, 2007 8:00 PM - Music of Gershwin and Ravel on their 70th Anniversary Location: Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York, USA Sponsored by the Honest Brook Music Festival"
The program will include Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Ravel’s Rhapsodie Espagnol on one piano and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Fantasy and Ravel’s La Valse on two pianos.
Elena has been a long time member of PWF, and lives both in Spain and Newfoundland.
Yes, otherwise I might have missed it. I was just looking at their website last night.
Elena -- if I may ask: there is reference somewhere to your playing of Ligeti pieces. But I couldn't find any CD's on amazon (or your site) of this material. Are there recordings available?
Sorry no CD's. I only played 2 of them anyway. I got a brief blurb in the NY Times when I did the "unofficial" world premiere of "L'escalier du diable" at the Jewish Composers festival at NEC back in '95. I've also played Fanfares but alas, no recording of either. Anyhow, you should get the Pierre-Laurent Aimard versions if you want the final word on these etudes. He is fantastic!
I was happily among the piano enthusiasts to attend this premier concert.
I had never been to Carnegie Hall before. There is more than one concert hall. Duo Scarbo played at Weill Hall to the left of the main entrance seen in the previous post.
The hall is intimate and has a balcony where I sat where one can view the stage well and where the acoustics are fantastic. Elena and Laura played beautifully. To me it sounded like one soul with four hands, so intune with one another's interpretation were they.
The first half was Gershwin's Concerto and Ravel's Rhapsodie Espagnole. The second half was Gershwin's Fantasy on Porgy and Bess and Ravel's LaValse.
Applause brought back 3 encores.
Congratulations to both on such a spectacular performance.
I have known Elena and about this concert from her posts here on PW and on the Well Tempered Forum (old coffee room folks from PW). The excitement of attending made it more meaningful having been in communications with her. I was proud of both of them.
A few of us from the piano internet socializing group also attended a dinner before and a get together at Jon NYC's place on Fri. As well, several attended the Steinway Factory Tour on Tues.
If you would like to hear more about this event, please check out a few threads here:
My Keyboards: Estonia L-190, Roland RD88, Yamaha P-80, Bilhorn Telescope Organ c 1880, Antique Pump Organ, 1850 concertina, 3 other digital pianos ------------------------- My original piece on BandCamp: https://frankbaxtermrpianoworld.bandcamp.com/releases
Me banging out some tunes in the Estonia piano booth at the NAMM show...
It really is too bad this didn't get reviewed in the NY Times. They reviewed a bunch of junk last week (pop, C&W, etc.) but seem to have missed this concert, which was really excellent.
The duo's presentation and stage presence were relaxed and good humored but at the same time serious about the music. They played all the pieces (4) plus encores (3) from memory and didn't miss a note.
Congratulations! I hope someday in the future, I will hear you live, judging by the reviews and impressions you made on PW members you must be excellent pianists both of you, and you seem to work together very good.