PIERCE & JONAS

"A look through Pierce and Jonas’s huge discography shows just about every major piece composed for 2 pianos and orchestra and a good sampling of the 2-piano repertoire. Pierce as a soloist also has many CDs both of mainstream and unusual concertos and solo pieces... Everything is quite convincingly played. I have ordered Volume 1 to complete the collection. The remastering is clear and precise, and the booklet notes are superb."

Harrington, American Record Guide [July/August 2023]

"...some of these works had to be rescued from obscurity by Jonas and Pierce (and others) – and given this sample, we can be happy that they did... the playing that I heard through the two CDs was technically secure and sympathetic to the music itself, both from the pianists and the orchestras... the MSR recording team has done a fine job... details both soft and loud are clear and well-placed... I was happy to hear such novel (to me) music so well played and recorded, and I suspect that many readers of Classical Candor will be as well."

Bill Heck, Classical Candor [April 2023]

"It’s very encouraging and rewarding to see and hear these recordings again and all in one welcoming place. In the present case, the music, written between 1946 and 1959, still has the freshness of discovery and the freshness of experience about it... The booklet notes are nothing short of splendid and there are apposite photographs as well. The sound throughout is good and pianists Pierce and Jonas (and their orchestras and conductors from hither and yon) are owed more than thanks for their part in bringing these works to our ears with sparkle and emotional lightning undimmed."

Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International [April 2023]

"Only the highest superlatives can be applied to describe the superb performances preserved in this two CD set, as a follow up from the duo’s first such recording. All the music in the second volume, as in the first, has a brilliance and vibrancy that makes it an exceptional listening experience. Far beyond merely playing the scores skillfully and with verve, Joshua Piece and Dorothy Jonas put their heart and soul and lifetime of musicianship into every moment of the compositions they bring to our ears. As in other recordings in which they played together, the symphonic orchestras that participated in this CD set were inspired to play at a superior level of passion and enthusiasm to accompany them. This recording, one of the best one could have in a music library, is one of five by this piano duo offered by MSR Classics." 

Joel C. Thompson, Cherry Grove Music Review [April 2023]

Two things propelled the re-emergence of the keyboard double concerto. One of them was the revival of interest in early classical and baroque music. The other was the emergence of the piano duo, those popular and virtuosic two-piano teams that captured a big audience and toured widely. Some of these duos became superstars: Vronsky & Babin, Gold & Fizdale, Whittemore & Lowe, Luboshutz & Nemenoff are still remembered as masters of their trade and it is due to them and others like them that this new piano-and-orchestra repertoire was created.
 
And this is the tradition that Joshua Pierce and Dorothy Jonas have revived and carried forward as the successors to those virtuosic piano duos of another era. It is logical that Pierce & Jonas recorded – and, in some cases unearthed and revived – these 20th century masterpieces for two pianos and orchestra. This 2-CD album, containing six of these works, constitutes the second of two volumes – the first being available on MSR Classics [MS1651]. Along with Volume 1, this release makes a baker’s dozen of works in an extraordinary collection of original compositions for this medium by an extraordinary piano duo working in a grand tradition.
 
The pundits talk about Neo-Classicism as one of the two leading movements of 20th century music (the other is Expressionism, including twelve-tone music), but the real musical trend was usually something closer to “back to Baroque”. The baroque concerto grosso, the model for the so-called neo-classical concerto, is based on the string orchestra (with continuo) from which the typical soloists are drawn but which may also use winds or even members of the lute family as soloists. The typical form is fast –slow–fast, with the first movement dominated by driving motoric impulses, the second usually lyrical in a baroque arioso style and the finale again motoric, often with a dance-like feel. The concerto started to change in the Classical period and became something quite different in the Romantic period, also mostly in three movements but built rather on symphonic form and contrasting key relationships.

Oddly enough, keyboards were a regular part of the baroque concerto grosso as members of the continuo (the ensemble’s “back-up”) but they rarely appeared as solo instruments. This seems to have changed with J.S. Bach who, in his Leipzig period, organized concerts for Zimmerman’s Coffee House and composed or arranged concertos for one, two, three and even four harpsichord soloists – generally played by Bach himself with his talented sons. In spite of all the possible variables, two was the magic number and the idea of a double concerto persisted into the Classical and early Romantic period. But after Mozart and the young Mendelssohn, the two-piano concerto seems to have faded away, only to be revived in the 20th century with the “back to baroque” form of neo-classicism.
 
The first 20th century two-piano concerto seems to have been written in 1912 by the German composer Max Bruch, but, for reasons unknown, it was never performed in its original version until long after the composer’s death in 1920. Igor Stravinsky, commonly considered the founder of Neo-Classicism  wrote a concerto for two pianos in the 1930s but, curiously, there is no orchestra. Only in the 1920s and 1930s did the idea of the two-piano concerto – with orchestra – start to emerge in the work of  composers in the neo-classical or “back to baroque” camp. In short, the works recorded here are not only masterworks of their kind, but also highly innovative for their time. CD1

PIERRE MAX DUBOIS (1930-1995)
CONCERTO ITALIEN FOR 2 PIANOS AND ORCHESTRA
I. Brillante
II. Andante (Legato, dans un tempo très souple) – Più mosso...             
III. Rondo (Allegro molto con spirito)

ROY HARRIS (1898-1979)
CONCERTO FOR 2 PIANOS AND ORCHESTRA
I. Introduction – Toccata (Con fuoco)
II. Theme and Variations (Very sustained...)
III. Jig (Moderately fast) – Poco più mosso

ARTHUR BENJAMIN (1893-1960)
NORTH AMERICAN SQUARE DANCE SUITE FOR 2 PIANOS & ORCHESTRA
I. Introduction and “Miller’s Reel” (Con brio)
II. The Old Plunk (Rapidamente arpeggiato)
III. The Bundle of Straw (Quasi andante)
IV. He Piped So Sweet (Poco lento)
V. Fill the Bowl (Allegro) - Cadenza
VI. Pigeon on the Pier
VII. Calder Fair (Allegretto espressivo)
VIII. Salamanca (Molto allegro) – Coda

 
CD2
 
WALTER PISTON (1894-1976)
CONCERTO FOR 2 PIANOS AND ORCHESTRA
I. Allegro non troppo                                                                               
II. Adagio                                                            
III. Con spirito

QUINCY PORTER (1897-1966)
CONCERTO CONCERTANTE FOR 2 PIANOS AND ORCHESTRA
 
MORTON GOULD (1913-1997)
DANCE VARIATIONS FOR 2 PIANOS AND ORCHESTRA
I. Chaconne: Moderately Fast and Moving
II. Arabesques: Gavotte, Pavane, Polka, Quadrille, Minuet, Waltz, Can-Can
III. Pas de deux (Tango)
IV. Tarantella
 

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RECORDINGS: 24-25 July 1989, CBS Studios, London, England. Producer: Raymond Few and Timothy MacDonald. Recording engineer: Mike Ross-Trevor [CD2: 1-3; 5-8]; 23 May1998, Olomuc, Czech Republic [CD2: 4]; 25-26 May [CD1: 1-3], 29 May 2000 [CD2: 7-14] and 30-31 May 2001 [4-6], Bratislava, Slovak Republic. Producer: Emil Niznansky. Recording engineer: Hubert Geschwandtner. Compilation mastering: Richard Price, Candlewood Digital LLC.
 



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