JOIN USA melodious piano recital ‘Viennese Waltz Export – soulful piano duos’ by artistes Ranko Markovic and Marialena Fernandes was held at Alliance Francaise recently.
This versatile performance, which was brought together by The Bangalore School of Music, The Embassy of Austria and EPTA India Associates, was a hit among the music lovers of the City. The performance, which consisted of various waltz pieces and other western musical pieces, received a lot of appreciation from the audience. The evening’s performance started with Johann Strauss Sr’s ‘Tanz – Signale op. 218’, which kicked up the mood of the concert. The evening progressed into Wolfgang Rihm’s ‘Mehrere Kurze Walzer’ and was later followed by PI Tchaikowsky and S Rachmaninov’s ‘Sleeping Beauty, Suite op. 61a’.
The performance also saw the artistes interacting about the different pieces and Marialena said that it wasn’t easy to share a piano with another artiste at a performance. “But just like one partners at a dance, I partnered with Ranko and it’s always much more fun,” she said. After a short interval, the audience which was patiently seated inside the hall, was pleased and excited to see the artistes back on the stage. The concert continued with the artistes performing Arnold Schonberg’s ‘Sech Stucke’ and Sergei Rachmaninov’s ‘Sechs Stucke op.11’ and the evening concluded with an encore piece.
Ranko who had performed earlier in the country said that he was excited to be back in Bangalore and was hoping to come again soon.
Marialena, who has performed in Bangalore umpteen times, said that it was always heart-warming to come back to the City and perform. “Also, it’s great to share the influence of music and the variety of music with others,” she said.
The audience, which was mesmerised by the performance, had no dearth of words to appreciate the music that they heard. “I feel blessed to have sat through such a titillating musical experience that could impress anyone. The way the artistes co-ordinated together to bring the performance shows the extent of their talent,” commented Uma Srinivasan, a music connoisseur.
A piano teacher Gita Kumaran, said that it required great talent to share a piano with another artiste as it’s not just dexterity but a lot of mind calculations which go behind playing the notes on a piano.
“Before a note finishes, to play the next note that is to follow requires a lot of keen observation and especially, when there is someone else to work with. It’s a challenging task,” she said.