Duoalleviguidi: One Piano - 4 Hands

Pablo Ziegler and Emanuel Ax, moved Piazzolla firmly into the repertoire of piano duo teams with their 1997 recording, Los Tangueros. Two, back-to-back, grand pianos sounding Ziegler-inspired arrangements of Piazzolla are now a familiar sight on stage and in YouTube. But there is another way for two pianists to play duets and that is four hands on one piano. Duoalleviguidi, featured in today's video, may well move Piazzolla more firmly into the repertoire of the one piano - 4 hands teams.

Duoalleviguidi consists of pianists Anna Allevi and Stefano Guidi and they have been playing one piano - 4 hands together since 1986. They have a new touring program based on tango music - most of it by Piazzolla - and all of it arranged by themselves. They have shared eight of their Piazzolla performances in YouTube videos which you can find listed on their channel. The performance I have chosen to feature is not their best, nor my favorite, but it is the most unusual: Milonga from Midsummer Night's Dream, another rarely heard Piazzolla composition (that seems to be a theme this month). This milonga was written in 1983 by Piazzolla in collaboration with accordionist/bandoneónist Richard Galliano for a production of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream staged by Jorge Lavelli at the Comédie Française. Piazzolla never recorded the music although Galliano did in the 2003 release, El Sueno de una Noche de Verano. In a private communication, duoalleviguidi tell me that their arrangement was derived from the publication for solo piano, El Viaje, published by Boosey & Hawkes. That same communication indicated their expectation that a CD of their Piazzolla performances will be released before the end of 2009.

Please do enjoy some of the other Piazzolla videos provided in the duoalleviguidi channel. The overhead screen gives an unusual and good view of their hands so you can appreciate their technique. Their arrangements are honest and quite straight forward, producing music which is accessible, cinematic and flowing.

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To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.