Four Hands, One Heart

By Gregory Sullivan Isaacs

Dallas — It is difficult to start out reviewing the program, but such is the case in the discussion of the piano recital presented at Southern Methodist University Meadows School of the Arts Faculty Artist and Distinguished Alumni Recital Series at Caruth Auditorium on Sunday. And by program, I mean the printed paper program. Considering that there were two big programmatic pieces, some program notes would have been very helpful, even to people familiar with the music....

Both Bax and Chung are graduates of SMU and still have a relationship as faculty. They are both in the early stages of a major career and, as we learned at great length, have won some major competitions and played with many top level orchestras. They tour as a piano duo, in addition to their solo careers. Piano four hands recitals are relatively rare but are enjoyable experiences. There is a lot of fine literature written for the combination. Most composers have written something and others, like Mozart, have written a lot. We hardly ever get to hear it.
 
In the days before recordings, playing piano four hands arrangements were the way you got to hear the big symphonies in between rare orchestral performances. It was also a delightful way to spend an evening in the pre-TV era and still is among some pianists – professional and amateur.
 
Chung played the first half of the program. She delivered a highly colored performance of the Schumann pieces....