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Richard and John Contiguglia | |
|---|---|
 Richard and John Contiguglia at the National Gallery in London, November 2008 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Richard and John Contiguglia |
| Born | April 13, 1937 Auburn, New York |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupations |
|
| Instrument | Piano |
| Years active | 1962–2015 |
| Labels |
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| Website | duopianistscontiguglia |
Richard and John Contiguglia (born April 13, 1937[1] in Auburn, New York) are American identical twin duo-pianists. Born to Italian immigrant parents, they were the youngest and second set of twins in a family of seven children.
Biography
[edit]At the age of five they started piano lessons and at six gave their first public performance together.
At the age of twelve they performed a group of two-piano pieces on a recital in their hometown by the legendary composer-pianist Percy Grainger. Grainger was so impressed with the twins' talent that a few months later he sent them much of his 4-hand music, which they championed throughout their career.
Their first important teacher was Jean Wilder, a pupil of Tobias Matthay, then on the faculty of Wells College in Aurora, New York.
After graduating 1st and 2nd in their class from public high school in Auburn , the twins attended Yale College. They were elected to Phi Beta Kappa in their junior year, an honor extended to the top 1% of their class of 1000, and received BA degrees in 1959, summa cum laude with philosophical orations, and were awarded the Seymour Prize for the highest numerical average of a graduating student in Berkeley College, their residential college. They achieved identical 4-year averages of 91, a coincidence that received national attention.
In 1961 they received MMus degrees from the Yale Graduate School of Music. During their 6 years at Yale the twins studied piano with Bruce Simonds.
From 1961-1965 Richard and John studied in London with the great English pianist, Dame Myra Hess, who prepared them for their professional debut in London’s Wigmore Hall on October 27, 1962. Its success led to recitals on the Continent, especially in Holland, where they received enthusiastic critical acclaim, and to a contract to tour in the United States under the aegis of impresario Sol Hurok.
Richard and John taught piano for six years at Syracuse University School of Music from 1966-1972. They also taught for 6 years at the Horace Mann School in New York.
Since 1974, Richard and John have made their homes in New York City.
Bartok and Liszt Recordings
[edit]During the 1970s the Contiguglias recorded and performed much little known repertoire of Bartók and Liszt. Connoisseur Society Records released Bartók’s Suite for Two Pianos, Op. 4b and 14 Pieces from Mikrokosmos, followed by Liszt’s two piano versions of Réminiscenses de Don Juan, Réminiscences de Norma, Fantasy on Bellini’s La Sonnambula, Tscherkessenmarsch from Russlan und Ludmila, and Liszt’s monumental transcription for two pianos of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, coupled with his transcription for one piano, four hands of Festkantate (1845) All of the music on these Bartók and Liszt discs were ‘first recorded performances.’ Honors poured in.
In 1975 The Liszt Society of Budapest, Hungary, during its celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Liszt Academy, awarded their recording of the Beethoven-Liszt 9th a Grand Prix, in the first record competition in the Society’s history. Gramophone magazine selected two of the Liszt releases as its choices for ‘Top 10 Record Releases of the Year.‘ The Beethoven-Liszt “9th” was a Billboard Best Seller and a best seller in Japan.
Other Notable Recordings
[edit]- Schubert-Brahms Connoisseur Society recording: Schubert Fantasy in F Minor and Marche Militaire, Brahms Waltzes, Op. 39 and Hungarian Dances, Nos. 5 & 6.
- John Corigliano's Kaleidoscope and Gazebo Dances, on the CRI label, recorded at the composer’s request.
- Two-piano Music of Percy Grainger and William Bolcom for Helicon Records: Lincolnshire Posy, Hill Song No.1, Children’s March (Over the Hills and Far Away, all by Grainger and Recuerdos and Two Rags, The Serpent’s Kiss and Through Eden’s Gates by Bolcom.
- Gershwin-Grainger CD and LP for MCA Classics: “The Legendary Transcriptions of Percy Grainger:” Fantasy on George Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess', the solo piano transcriptions of Gershwin’s Love Walked In and The Man I Love, the piano 4-hand version of Embraceable You and the original Gershwin duos of Rhapsody in Blue and Cuban Overture.
- In 1982, Grainger’s centennial year, Richard and John recorded for NPR several programs of Grainger’s chamber music, including the Trios for piano, violin and ‘cello, My Robin is to the Greenwood Gone and Colonial Song, as well as other works for strings and piano, besides many compositions for two pianists. The previous year they presented an all-Grainger program at The Caramoor Festival.
Gemini CD Classics
[edit]In 2000 The Contiguglias formed their own recording company, Gemini CD Classics, LLC. Under this label they issued 4 CDs, Schubert Duets - The Final Year, Live From the Holland Liszt Festivals, Beethoven-Liszt ‘9th Symphony’, and Liszt - Operatic Fantasies for One and Two Pianos and Bartók - Suite for Two Pianos, Op. 4b. The Contiguglias were awarded a second Grand Prix by the Liszt Society of Budapest for the last recording.
Performances of Note
[edit]Performances of Bartók and Liszt works by the Contiguglias, many of which were modern-day premieres, were presented in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1971 and 1972, one of which featured Bartók's complete works for two pianos. They performed a Liszt Marathon Recital in New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1974. In 1970 they participated in Bartók commemorative concerts in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, organized by Bartók pupil and composer, Geza Frid. They were frequent guests of the Holland Liszt Festivals in Utrecht and Amsterdam during the 1980s.
On Nov. 14, 1986, in Utrecht, Holland, under the auspices of the Holland Liszt Festival, they gave the first complete public performance ever of Liszt’s unpublished, and almost forgotten, Grosses Konzertstüeck über Mendelssohn’s ‘Lieder ohne Worter’ after reconstructing the music from manuscript copies. At what was to have been the Konzertstüeck's debut in Paris by Liszt and a pupil in 1835, Liszt collapsed at the piano in the middle of the performance and was carried off the stage. Many years later, Busoni announced an upcoming performance in London with a colleague, Egon Petri, but died before the concert could take place. There is no record of this work being publicly performed before the Contiguglias’ world premiere in Holland in 1986. Its American premieres followed in Chicago and New York the following weeks.
Richard and John appeared with many orchestras in Europe and North and Central America, often playing unusual repertoire. They were soloists with the Cleveland Orchestra in a 1978 revival of Victor Babin’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra; with the Syracuse Symphony in Tibor Serly’s Double Concerto; with the Honolulu Symphony in Quincy Porter’s Concerto Concertante for 2 Pianos and Orchestra; with the American Symphony Orchestra in New York’s Carnegie Hall, in Max Bruch’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra; with the Des Moines Symphony and with the Seattle Symphony in the orchestrated version, commissioned by the Contiguglias from Tom Kochan, of Percy Grainger’s Fantasy on George Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess'. Other orchestras with which they have collaborated include the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler, the Toronto Symphony, the National Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Amsterdam Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Nordelich Philharmonic Orkest of Groningen, Holland.
Their interest in ‘new’ music was not limited to works by modern composers. On March 21, 1993, Richard and John were an important part of the annual Schubertiade, Schubert and the Piano, at the 92nd St. Y in New York, during which they focused on Schubert’s Piano Duets, described by the Schubertiade’s program director, Joseph Horowitz, as “arguably, the most comprehensively varied body of music ever created by a single composer in a single genre,” works which are “rarely performed, or recorded.” After their extensive illustrated traversal, the twins gave complete performances of the three masterpieces from 1828, Schubert’s final year, Allegro (Lebensstürme), Fantasy in F Minor and Grand Rondo in A Major. Schubert duets were an important part of their recital repertoire throughout their career.
Perhaps the most important concert in their final years of concertizing was their performance at the National Gallery in London for Myra Hess Day -in 2008. The day honored the great pianist and national hero, and the Contiguglias’ beloved teacher. Their program comprised Howard Ferguson’s Partita for Two Pianos, Schubert’s Variations in A-Flat on an Original Theme and the Finale of the Beethoven-Liszt 9th Symphony. Ferguson had worked closely with Dame Myra on the wartime National Gallery Concerts; Richard and John studied the Schubert Variations with Dame Myra in preparation for their London debut recital; the “Ode to Joy” seemed to sum up the twins’ feelings on the occasion.
As part of the twins' early touring, the Contiguglias often visited nursing homes and hospitals to share their music. Under the auspices of Hospital Audiences. Inc., they teamed up with Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons in a performance of Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals, with the famous actors reciting the Ogden Nash poems. The performance was recorded and videotaped by Video Artists International.
Publications
[edit]- Hunting for Liszt Treasure
- Grainger The Modernist - A Review
Adams Piano Recital Series
[edit]One of the most rewarding experiences of their career, indeed of their lives, was conceiving of and directing for thirteen years, from 2001-2014, the Adams Foundation Piano Recital Series project. This philanthropic program arranged piano recitals by American pianists throughout the United States under the sponsorship of the Adams Family Foundation. During the thirteen years of its operation the program made possible 261 piano recitals in 40 different communities in 25 different states by 18 different American pianists. When the end of the program was announced, Richard and John received some of their most cherished tributes from many of the pianists who participated, including Simone Dinnerstein, Jon Nakamatsu, Joseph Kalichstein, Steven Mayer, Ursula Oppens, Soyeon Kate Lee, Frederic Chiu, Ann Schein and Jeanne Stark-Iochmans.
Sources
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