Even when they speak, you notice immediately that they are a duo. Halfway a sentence the other one naturally fills it in. “After we started dating, at some point Michal needed a pianist for some concerts,” she continues, “and from there we started playing more chamber music. We started arranging the Paganini Variations by Lutoslawski, a famous piece for two pianos, for our own instruments. We became a duo, in personal life, and professionally.”
Arranging is an important part of their work. The duo plays a wide variety of styles, from Baroque to contemporary music and Piazzolla. “That’s what is characterizing our duo I think,” says Michal, “our audience can feel that we like so many styles. Recently, we even started arranging a string quartet for piano and accordion. The possibilities are endless. Accordionists often play arrangements and contemporary music because the instrument is relatively new and still developing. In the modern accordion, the register from low to high notes is almost as wide as on a piano. We have a strong ambition to explore the possibilities with this sound, we want to play everything.”
Julia adds: “I’m now thinking of Rachmaninoff Suites for two pianos. Those pieces are so complex for a piano duo, I really wonder if it would work on our instrument combination. We already have arrangements that are very differnet from the original. We arranged Piazzolla’s History of Tango, which is originally for flute and guitar. I actually don’t know why Piazzolla chose these instruments. It sounds better on piano and accordion anyway.”
She tells: “We have differences and similarities to a piano duo. In general you can say that both a piano and an accordion are independent instruments; they don’t need an accompaniment like a violin or a singer often needs piano accompaniment to sound great. Both of us can play melody and harmony at the same time like you could do on two pianos. However, we have a completely different sound. An accordion can change dynamics on one note, like a violin. You can never do that on a piano when you have only one attack on the string with every note. It’s our mission to take full advantage over these sound possibilities.”
She’s getting enthusiastic. “Did you know there where prototypes of instruments that were actually combined instruments? At the time of Liszt, there was the clavi-organ. A piano with organ pipes. I like to think as our duo as a fully developed version of this instrument combination. Lately, my piano professor told me that we manage now to sound as one instrument. That compliment was so important for me. It’s what we’re looking for to create.”
The duo recently toured through the USA and Asia, organized by the Ibla Foundation that supports their concert in the festival. “Carnegie Hall was probably the highlight of our carrier. All this travelling was adventurous to us in a professional way. We really learned how to be prepared at any time, at all conditions to perform. Now it will be our first performance in The Netherlands, we literally can’t wait to play there. We don’t really know what to expect, although I know there will be many bicycles and the streets are very clean! It’s quite possible the audience never heard a piano-accordion combination before. We really tried to create a program that is interesting for the audience of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam, with both original pieces and our own transcriptions. We want to show that our instruments – great on their own, are more than that when they come together: then it’s simply amazing. ”
