Morning Edition with Luanne Stevens

[LU ANNE STEPHENS]: This is Morning Edition on KMUW. I'm Lu Anne Stephens. Botanica's Concert in the Garden series continues tonight with the piano duo Side by Side. Lynda Newfield and Eric Street have performed together for ten years with performances throughout the United States and recently in Russia. They perform in all sizes of towns on all types of pianos for audiences of all ages. Newfield says although the setting may change from concert to concert, their mission as performers is the same -- to expose the audience to exceptional music...and to demonstrate how much enjoyment there can be in playing the classics. especially to make children enjoy it and see how much fun we have to really have a lot of fun playing together and we want them to see that it's not drudgery that when you get to a certain point after you practiced hard it's really fun. Several other works featured in tonight's concert maybe familiar excerpts from Tchaikovsky's sleeping beauty and Gershwin's rhapsody in blue. But many people only know these words in their orchestral form Newfield says the pieces to be played in tonight's concert are original works by the

composer and not arrangements. Many many wonderful pieces of music were originally written for two pianos or for piano duet and particularly in the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century even many composers arranged their big works for piano duo because many temps didn't have orchestras The Dvořák Slavonic Dances, we'll be playing two of them this evening and those were originally written for piano or piano duet four hands on one piano that is and then later on they were transcribed for orchestra now most people here those in the orchestration but that's not the way they were originally meant to be. Eric Streets says in the past piano duets we're much more common than today. In the nineteenth century peoples options were a little more limited than they are today they didn't have movies they didn't have recorded music and there was so much more music making in the home and the number of the most important composters trend their attention

to writing things for piano duet things that two pianists can do in the living room or drawing for a group of friends. Newfield recently were invited to perform in Russia giving concerts in Moscow, Obninsk, and St. Petersburg they say the audiences were both appreciative and well informed often coming up after the concerts to ask very technical questions sometimes bringing flowers and gifts. This one place where we performed in Obninsk there had never been any Americans perform there before. There had never been any Americans there before because it was a closed city and it's a city about a hundred thousand people with twenty eight nuclear reactors that built a lot of stuff for the space program and there had never been any Americans in the city before and so we were the first Americans to perform there. And the reactions to the American music I mean people were bringing us flowers after every number you know with these big smiles on their faces and they were so excited to hear the American music because it was the first time they had the chance. Side by Side performs several times a year as part of the Kansas arts

commission and Ohio arts commission actives. They also have separate performing careers Lynda Newfield has performed and taught all over the united states she currently is on the faculty at Bethany college and performs in and around the Lynchburg area. Eric Street perform solo concerts and concertos with orchestras throughout the us including the Wichita symphony orchestra he's performed in europe and japan and now directs keyboard studies at the university of Ohio in Dayton. In spite of their separate successes both Street and Newfield say there's a special chemistry between them that makes their performances unique we put in a lot of time together at this point we really know what each other is about to do so i don't think we have any troubles being apart we get back together and we it just comes together again. Piano music is sometimes regarded as background music, enjoyed but not really paid attention to Lynda Newfield says that's not a mistake their audiences will make. To play piano

duel like Eric and i play is very very intense for us. I would hope that someone would come to be in the audience to feel some of that intensity to feel some of that great joy that we have we certainly feel it and I would like for them to hear something that's not background music that they don't take for granted they sit there and they say that really made me feel great. Side by Side performs tonight at botanic the Wichita gardens. The concert starts at seven thirty on the terrace stage. For KMUW I'm Luanne Stevens. That was very intense for us i would hope that someone would come to be in the audience to feel some of that intensity to feel some of that great joy that we have i don't know if they feel that or not but we certainly feel it. And I would like for them to hear something that's not background music that they don't take for granted that they sit there and they say that really made me feel great

side by side performs tonight a botanica the Wichita gardens the concert starts at seven thirty on the terrace stage. For KMUW, I'm Lu Anne Stephens. ***** [LU ANNE STEPHENS]: This is Morning Edition on KMUW. I'm Lu Anne Stephens. Botanica's Concerts in the Garden series continues tonight with the piano duo Side by Side. Lynda Newberry and Eric Street have performed together for ten years with performances throughout the united states and recently in Russia they perform in all sizes of towns on all types of pianos and for audiences of all ages. Newberry says although the setting may change from concert to concert their mission as performers is the same to expose the audience to exceptional music and to demonstrate how much enjoyment they're can be in playing the classics especially to make children enjoy it and see how much fun we have cause we really have a lot of fun

playing together and we want them to see that is not drudgery that when you get to a certain point after you practice hard it's really fun and you build life- Several other words on tonight's concert maybe familiar excerpts from Tchaikovsky's sleeping beauty and Gershwin's rhapsody in blue but many people I know these words in their orchestral form Newberry says the pieces to be played at tonight's concert are the original works by the composer and not arrangements they're not arrangements there not transcriptions many many wonderful pieces of music were originally written for two pianos or for piano duet and particularly in the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century even many composers arranged their big works for piano duo because towns didn't have orchestras like bronze. He wrote all of his symphonies for piano duo so that people could enjoy them. The Dvořák Slavonic Dances will be playing two of them this evening those were originally written for piano

or piano duet four hands on one piano that is and then later on they were transcribed for orchestra now most people hear those in the orchestration but that's not the way they were originally meant to be . Eric Streets says in the past piano duets were much more more common than today. [ERIC STREET]: Well, in the 19th century, people's options were a little more limited than they are today. They didn't have movies. They didn't have recorded music. And so there was so much more music making in the home. And a number of the most important composers turned their attentions to writing things for piano duet...things that two pianists could do in the living room or drawing for a group of friends.