Six hands are poised to deliver a musical marvel to the Foothills.
Coming to Red Deer Lake United Church May 5 and High River United Church May 6, Percussiano 3 is comprised of pianists Elizabeth and Marcel Bergmann and percussionist Rod Thomas Squance.
Adding to the dynamic, the Bergmanns typically play ‘piano four hands’ where the two share one piano’s keys.
Taken separately, their sounds are quite traditional, but the whole is greater than the sum of their hands.
“We’ve really sort of crossed boundaries with some of the repertoire we’ve done over the years,” said Elizabeth Bergman. “We’re all classically trained musicians, in general, it stems from a classical program, so you’ll hear everything from Bach to the Argentinian tango composer Astor Piazzolla, who wrote the Tango Nuevo.
“We present somewhat of a couple of the famous Spanish pieces like España by Emmanuel Chabrier.
“It stems from the classical, but we certainly cross boundaries going into musical and jazz.”
Adding the percussion vibes to the already-uncommon configuration of piano four hands creates a sound unlike anything else, but one Bergmann said is uniquely fitted to taking on their diverse repertoire.
“It’s an unusual combination for sure, but the great thing is with some of these orchestral pieces like the España for instance, which is on the program, it’s originally an orchestral piece, as is Ma Mere l’Oye, the Mother Goose suite from (Maurice) Ravel, is originally a four-hand piece, but also orchestrated,” Bergmann said.
“A lot of this repertoire comes from the orchestral sound, and the great thing is with piano four hands, you encompass the entire keyboard, so you can play everything.
“In addition, we can take the percussion sounds or add new sounds to that already four hand version, so it really does become another sort of orchestral interpretation of some of those pieces.”
The partnership was born out of an old friendship between the Bergmanns and Squance, and stoked by their longtime mentor, the late impresario and bassoonist George Zukerman.
My husband Marcel and I have been playing forever and one piano, four hands, or two pianos, and we’ve known Rod for many, many years,” Bergmann said, adding they played together at the Banff Centre.
“Our mentor, the late George Zukerman, had this wonderful idea; he suggested to us, ‘Why not one piano, four hands, and percussion? That combination will be incredible.’ And he was right.”
The On the Edge concert at Red Deer Lake on May 5 begins at 7:30 p.m. with doors open at 6 p.m. For tickets visit reddeerlakeuc.com/concerts.
The Gift of Music concert in High River on May 6 begins at 7:30 p.m. with a special concert prelude by Jordan Middleton & Friends at 6:30 p.m. For tickets visit highrivergiftofmusic.com.
