Elena Abend and Melinda Lee Masur Piano Duo Recital at UWM

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Image: UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts

Elena Abend and Melinda Lee Masur

Elena Abend and Melinda Lee Masur

Those who love classical piano music are in for a treat on Tuesday, February 21 when two world-class pianists come together to play music written for four hands and two pianos. UWM Professor Elena Abend is joined with guest pianist Professor Melinda Lee Masur of Boston University. (The concert was originally scheduled for February 16.)

The Chinese American Masur has performed on all three stages of Carnegie Hall, at London’s Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, the Berliner Philharmonie, Ravinia Festival, as well as other venues around the world. She serves as director ofpPiano chamber music and co-director of the Young Artist Piano Program for the BU Tanglewood Institute.

Abend, born in Caracas, Venezuela, has performed with all the major orchestras in her native country, Carnegie Hall, the Purcell Room, Avery Fisher Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Ravinia and Marlboro Music Festivals, and many other venues. 

They met while judging the Piano Arts junior competition last summer and have already performed a four-hand recital at the University of Chicago where Melinda was teaching piano and chamber music.

Masur had this to say about the “fun and challenge in playing four-hand music on one keyboard. Only the person sitting on the left presses the foot pedal, so a lot of articulation of phrases has to be done with finger legato or coordination with your partner's foot! On the other hand, because the two pianists sit so close, you can communicate a lot with just a quiet breath or lift of the wrist. It is always a treat to be able to play with pianist friends in these contexts, since most of the time we are the lone pianist in an ensemble.” 

It promises to be an exciting concert with two pieces for four hands on the first part of the program. It begins with Mozart’s Sonata in D major K. 381. It’s a fun piece, most likely written for harpsicord. Abend noted that while “some four-hand music could be played on two pianos it would defeat the purpose of the four-hand setting where the pianists are in very close proximity. It’s fun and always a challenge.” 

Masur noted that in the mid-19th century it was common for pianos to be in living rooms and parlors of many families where it was a way of conversing and having fun after dinner. Mozart would play with his sister and with his teacher, J.C. Bach. And Felix Mendelssohn played four-hand music with his sister Fanny Hensel and wrote duets and concertos for two pianos.

This will be followed by Schubert’s Fantasie for four hands in F minor Op. 103. Here the intimacy of Schubert’s wonderful melodies would require the performers to be close. It was composed in 1828, a year before his death and is considered one of his most important compositions. He dedicated it to his pupil Caroline Esterházy. The piece captures Schubert’s unrequited love for his student.

After the intermission we will be treated to a performance of Brahms’s Haydn Variations for 2 pianos Op. 56b. As Professor Abend remarked two piano compositions are fuller. And Brahms, who was also a pianist, never was stingy with notes in his piano compositions. 

Abend said that the Brahms’s Variations “could not be played on one instrument … and is amongst the most challenging works in the piano chamber literature she has ever encountered.” There’s an additional challenge with music written for two pianos. With most musical configurations there is a conductor who can cue when to start or line-of-sight between the chamber musicians where a subtle nod indicates a count down. Here, as Abend continues, “the pianists are far from each other and it requires even more communication and similar understanding of the score in order for them to be together all the time,” and this makes for “the most challenging of all ensemble playing.” 

Masur told me how she had always wanted to learn this piece but hadn’t had the chance until called by Jon Nakamatsu to jump in for Joyce Yang, who suffered a finger injury—four days before the concert! It was for his summer festival in Cape Cod in a program of four-and-eight-eight-hand piano music. She played it with Orli Shaham and now twice with Abend.

Masur moved here with her husband, Ken-David Masur, the music director of the MSO, shortly before the pandemic. She said, “it’s been wonderful getting to know Milwaukee and the people here.”

The concert is at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, February 16 in the Fine Arts Recital Hall, UWM Music Building Room 175, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd. The hall’s superb acoustics in this hall will enhance your listening experience for what promises to be a memorable recital. Admission is free. For more information, visit uwm.edu/arts.