Four-hands as rare pianistic event
The piano duo Kaoru and Paul Lyddon play works by Schubert, Mozart, Fauré and Barber at the PFL

By Monika Stockhausen, translated by R. D. Trimillos

December 20, 1995

Oldenburg. Among the numerous pianists, there are few that maintain the genre of duo-piano together with a partner. Kaoru and Paul Lyddon from Honolulu appeared for the second time in Oldenburg. They transformed their afternoon concert at the PFL Cultural Center Hall into an exceptional event for piano.

Until the beginning of this century, piano music for four hands was a very popular form of music making even in the home. Today it is eclipsed by solo piano performance. The perfect presentation of works for four hands or for two pianos demands a high level of mutual awareness and agreement by the two interpreters, even to the smallest detail. The playing of the married couple Kaoru and Paul Lyddon revealed in addition a splendid vocabulary of touch that was as sensitive as it was powerful, a technical control, and a mastery of form.

Important works by Schubert and Mozart comprised the first half of this well-attended matinee: two major works from 1828, the year of Schubert's death, opened the recital. In the A-minor Allegro D. 947 ("Storms of life"), the duo pianists unfolded the vast tonal palette of this passionately expressive fantasy. Contrasting to the percussive chords of the initial theme, the lyrical parts were just as powerfully and sensitively realised, as was the tension-filled development. This included its expressive harmonic twists and its powerfully expressive and highly dramatic polyphony. In the Grand Rondeau in A major D. 951, the two artists displayed the full merriment of the voices which rushed out in splendid song-like themes; the music moves one through its magical character. Kaoru and Paul Lyddon understood perfectly how to convey this magical character in musical expression.

Mozart's Sonata in F Major K. 497, like Schubert's works for four hands, is practically a work of symphonic proportions. Through the interpretation of the Lyddon artist-pair, its character of both expressive power and quiet lyricism was realised.

In the second half, there were charming character pieces from the playroom—Gabriel Fauré’s “Dolly” Suite Op. 56. Here lyrical expression was ascendant although robust, rhythmic accents were certainly not missing. Kaoru and Paul Lyddon shaped this no less vigorously than [the following] Barber's Souvenirs Op. 28. Ravel's "Berceuse on a theme by Fauré" followed as encore.