N Blanco y Negro Piano Duo pianists Mirta Gómez and Sahily Cánovas doing their obligatory tour of San Francisco (from their Old First Concerts Web page)
Last night’s Old First Concerts program presented the N Blanco y Negro Piano Duo. This was a four-hands-one-keyboard group; and the pianists, Mirta Gómez and Sahily Cánovas, alternated taking left and right sides. The duo was founded in 2017 and gave its first recital in Miami. Both of them are of Cuban descent, but their training took them far beyond Cuba. Gomez graduated from the Juilliard School, while Cánovas graduated from the conservatories in both Kiev and Odessa.
Some readers probably know by now that I have had considerable experience with the four-hand repertoire. Much of that experience was due to weekly sessions with a neighbor in Opera Plaza, where I live. As a result, I have to make the disclaimer that I was familiar with the “nuts and bolts” of the first half of last night’s program, four-hand compositions by Antonín Dvořák, Franz Schubert, and Gabriel Fauré.
The greatest disappointment was the Schubert D. 940, his F minor fantasia, well-known to anyone that has explored the four-had repertoire. (I have lost count of the number of people with whom I have played this!) Sadly, Gómez and Cánovas fumbled the finale, which, as far as I am concerned, is perfectly conducive to amateurs. Similarly, there were major phrasing problems in their approach to the Fauré selection his Opus 56 Dolly suite.
The second half of the program was more diverse and less familiar. On the final selection, “La Bella Cubana” by José White Lafitte, they were joined by violinist Jennifer Redondas. The encores that followed were unannounced. However, the second half of the program was no more convincing than the first. Sadly, this was a program that promised much and delivered little.
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