Richard and John Contiguglia
Encyclopedia
Richard and John Contiguglia (born 13 April 1937) are American classical duo pianist
s with a worldwide reputation, who consistently attract superlatives from critics.
The Contiguglia brothers are identical twin
s. They were born in Auburn, New York
, of Italian
immigrant parents, who already had five children including another set of twins. They were playing duets by the age of 5. At age 12, in the midst of a solo piano recital by Percy Grainger
, they performed some piano-duo pieces. After that concert, Grainger presented them with signed copies of some of his two-piano scores. They have since championed Grainger's music in concert and on record.
They gained academic degrees from Yale University
, studying piano with Bruce Simonds, followed by four years of study in London
with Dame Myra Hess
, who asked them to devote their lives to making the Franz Schubert
piano duets better known. Their debut was at the Wigmore Hall
in London in 1962 and they were immediately noticed by critics. Since then they have carved out an impressive international touring and recording schedule. They have performed with many orchestras both in the United States and overseas, and have appeared in recital and concert in Carnegie Hall
and Lincoln Center
in New York, the Kennedy Center
in Washington, Orchestra Hall
in Chicago, Queen Elizabeth Hall
in London and the Concertgebouw
in Amsterdam.
The brothers Contiguglia have rediscovered, performed and recorded a number of unusual and forgotten works from the duo-piano repertoire, including all the Schubert duets and duos. They gave the New York premiere of Max Bruch
's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in A flat minor
. Other modern-day premiere performance or world premiere recordings include Bartók
's Suite for Two Pianos, Op. 4b, and Liszt
's two-piano or piano duo versions of his operatic fantasies on Norma
, Don Giovanni
and La sonnambula
. There was also Liszt's unpublished Grosses Konzertstück über Mendelssohns
"Lieder ohne Worte
", premiered in the Netherlands. Other unusual repertoire includes Mozart
's Concerto for Three Pianos and Orchestra in Mozart's own arrangement for two pianos and orchestra; and Carl Orff
's Carmina Burana
for two pianos, percussion, chorus and soloists. They are possibly the first duo ever to devote an entire program to Bartók's complete works for two pianos.
They have a special fondness for the music of Percy Grainger
and have given many performances of his original works and arrangements, including the two-piano Fantasy on George Gershwin
's Porgy and Bess
. In 1993 they commissioned Tom Kochan to arrange the work as a Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, which was premiered in 1995.
The Contiguglias have also been involved in the work of the Adams Foundation Piano Series since 2000, which operated to revitalize interest in pianists in America.
's 9th Symphony
won the Grand Prix from the Liszt Society of Budapest.
They originally recorded on the Connoisseur record label. Later they created their own record company, Gemini CD Classics, and have released their own recordings of Schubert, Liszt and Gershwin-Grainger on this label. They have re-recorded the Beethoven-Liszt 9th Symphony for Gemini.
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
s with a worldwide reputation, who consistently attract superlatives from critics.
The Contiguglia brothers are identical twin
Twin
A twin is one of two offspring produced in the same pregnancy. Twins can either be monozygotic , meaning that they develop from one zygote that splits and forms two embryos, or dizygotic because they develop from two separate eggs that are fertilized by two separate sperm.In contrast, a fetus...
s. They were born in Auburn, New York
Auburn, New York
Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States of America. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 27,687...
, of Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
immigrant parents, who already had five children including another set of twins. They were playing duets by the age of 5. At age 12, in the midst of a solo piano recital by Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
, they performed some piano-duo pieces. After that concert, Grainger presented them with signed copies of some of his two-piano scores. They have since championed Grainger's music in concert and on record.
They gained academic degrees from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, studying piano with Bruce Simonds, followed by four years of study in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with Dame Myra Hess
Myra Hess
Dame Myra Hess DBE was a British pianist.She was born in London as Julia Myra Hess, but was best known by her middle name. At the age of five she began to study the piano and two years later entered the Guildhall School of Music, where she graduated as winner of the Gold Medal...
, who asked them to devote their lives to making the Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
piano duets better known. Their debut was at the Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
in London in 1962 and they were immediately noticed by critics. Since then they have carved out an impressive international touring and recording schedule. They have performed with many orchestras both in the United States and overseas, and have appeared in recital and concert in Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
and Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
in New York, the Kennedy Center
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C...
in Washington, Orchestra Hall
Symphony Center
Symphony Center is a music complex located at 220 South Michigan Avenue in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta, Symphony Center includes the 2,522-seat Orchestra Hall, which dates from 1904; Buntrock Hall, a rehearsal and...
in Chicago, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...
in London and the Concertgebouw
Concertgebouw
The Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" literally translates into English as "concert building"...
in Amsterdam.
The brothers Contiguglia have rediscovered, performed and recorded a number of unusual and forgotten works from the duo-piano repertoire, including all the Schubert duets and duos. They gave the New York premiere of Max Bruch
Max Bruch
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he...
's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in A flat minor
Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (Bruch)
The Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 88a, was written by Max Bruch in 1912. It is in 4 movements, written in the rarely seen key of A flat minor, and takes about 25 minutes to perform....
. Other modern-day premiere performance or world premiere recordings include Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
's Suite for Two Pianos, Op. 4b, and Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
's two-piano or piano duo versions of his operatic fantasies on Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
, Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
and La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
. There was also Liszt's unpublished Grosses Konzertstück über Mendelssohns
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
"Lieder ohne Worte
Songs without Words
Songs Without Words is a series of short, lyrical piano pieces by the Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn.-Composition and reception:...
", premiered in the Netherlands. Other unusual repertoire includes Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Concerto for Three Pianos and Orchestra in Mozart's own arrangement for two pianos and orchestra; and Carl Orff
Carl Orff
Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...
's Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana , Latin for "Songs from Beuern" , is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces...
for two pianos, percussion, chorus and soloists. They are possibly the first duo ever to devote an entire program to Bartók's complete works for two pianos.
They have a special fondness for the music of Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
and have given many performances of his original works and arrangements, including the two-piano Fantasy on George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
's Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
. In 1993 they commissioned Tom Kochan to arrange the work as a Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, which was premiered in 1995.
The Contiguglias have also been involved in the work of the Adams Foundation Piano Series since 2000, which operated to revitalize interest in pianists in America.
Recordings
The Contiguglias’ recording of Liszt's transcription for 2 pianos of BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's 9th Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
won the Grand Prix from the Liszt Society of Budapest.
They originally recorded on the Connoisseur record label. Later they created their own record company, Gemini CD Classics, and have released their own recordings of Schubert, Liszt and Gershwin-Grainger on this label. They have re-recorded the Beethoven-Liszt 9th Symphony for Gemini.