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Sunday, April 15, 2012

M: Mannekrianna

Back in the day, the day being sometime in 2003, we watched "Breakfast with the Arts", a show on A&E hosted, at that time, by Elliott Forrest, a very talented and knowledgeable presenter and interviewer.

He was present at a performance by Mannekrianna, an improvisational piano duo, Marianna Rosett and Ken Bichel. They asked for themes, a set of them, and they then wove a piece of four-handed music right there and right then.

Sometimes it was like ping pong or badminton, as they traded musical phrases back and forth from piano to piano. Other times - waltzing, but trading the leader's role back and forth. I'd never heard anything like it before. And haven't since.

We found a CD of theirs and I'm glad I bought it. It doesn't seem to be available any longer. There does seem to be a download of the music available here.

4 comments:

  1. I'm always amazed at the talent some people have - and why it goes unnoticed by others. It's strange that it's no longer available. I guess it's like books and quits being produced.

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  2. I know, Laura. The raw talent exhibited by these two was amazing to see/hear.

    I was disappointed I couldn't link to the CD. And I'm very glad I bought it when I did.

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  3. That sounds like a really special duet team, piano duets can be amazing.

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    1. I agree, Helen, piano duets are often amazing. I've a CD set of all Mozart's four-handed piano works, composed, as I understand it, for himself and his sister to perform. They're quite something.

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