One husband, one wife, two pianos: Bergmann Duo ‘better than ever’
Professional piano duos who have devoted their lives to the two-piano or piano-four-hands repertoire are few and far between. Husband and wife piano duos are even scarcer. One of Canada’s best, the Bergmann Duo, are appearing on Sunday in a rare visit to this city for an Edmonton Recital Society concert at Muttart Hall.
For many years the Bergmanns were based in Alberta — indeed, Elizabeth Bergmann was born in Medicine Hat, where her parents still live. Her husband Marcel was born and studied in Germany; she knew she wanted to be a musician by the age of 16, but he grew up in a household surrounded by books and took a little longer. Eventually he went to study at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hanover in Germany. Elizabeth was encouraged by her parents (themselves of German origin) to study at the Hochschule, too, and the rest, as they say, is history.
These days, they live in White Rock, B.C. They are the music directors of the famed White Rock Concerts series, now in its 61st season.
“We think of ourselves as Canadian,” says Elizabeth, “but I still feel very Albertan. We had a good time when we lived in Calgary — it’s fun to come back!”
They are international prize winners, notably at Miami’s Dranoff International Two Piano Competition and the Provincia di Caltanisetta International Chamber Music Competition — and they themselves became Artistic Directors of the Dranoff in 2004-05.
They have toured all over North America and Europe, appearing in such famed venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Darmstadt in Germany. They have been heard on CBC radio, National Public Radio and on stations in Europe.
They have taught in Calgary, Hamilton, and currently at the Langley Community Music School. They have taken part in numerous projects at the Banff Centre. They played with Pro Coro in 2005 in one of the choir’s first visits to Calgary. The Bergamann’s repertoire is huge, from baroque works through the classics of the two-piano repertoire — both music for piano alone and works with orchestra — to the latest minimalist music.
They have also recorded extensively, notably the complete music for two pianos by William Bolcom, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Les Noces (as members of the International Piano Quartet), and Mike Oldfield’s famed Tubular Bells in versions for piano, two hands, and four pianos.
Their latest CD, American Stories,
includes a two-piano version of Bernstein’s West Side Story, and arrangements of two works by the famed jazz fusion pianist Chick Corea.
The arrangements on this CD are by Marcel himself, for arranging and composition have increasingly become part of his artistic activities.
A chamber musical about homelessness premiered at the High Performance Rodeo in Calgary in 2010, with a chorus formed by homeless people themselves. Vancouver Opera is going to present it this May, and Marcel is especially pleased that it will be seen in a city with a large homeless population.
“Composition is a tremendous source of enjoyment for me. A lot of what I write is for us — a logical point of departure.”
Inevitably, the Bergmanns get asked about what it’s like to be both husband and wife and professional partners.
“It’s better than ever — much deeper, especially with Marcel composing much more,” replies Elizabeth, and you can hear the enthusiasm in her voice. Marcel immediately chips in. “My composing does mean we have more time for oneself!”
Nonetheless, this year they are as busy as ever. They are playing their regular Classical Coffee Concert Series in various venues in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island.
“The 75-minute concerts take place in the morning,” explains Elizabeth, “and are very informal. They are preceded by coffee and tea, and in one of the venues, by champagne.”
They are playing in Pensacola in February and Miami in April, will be doing a Bernstein tour in Canada, and in May they will tour China. “It’s our first time there,” Elizabeth says, “and we are going all over the place. We are very, very, excited.”
For their concert at the Muttart the Bergmann Duo are drawing on their wide range of repertoire. It will include standards such Busoni’s arrangement of the overture to Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and Brahms’ celebrated Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, originally written for two pianos.
This year is the 100th anniversary of Bernstein’s birth, so the duo will be playing excerpts from West Side Story in Marcel’s two-piano arrangement. The concert also includes a piece Marcel wrote for a piano competition in 2005, Urban Pulse, which has a highly entertaining and quite theatrical interplay between the two pianos.
“It’s a really fun piece — I enjoy playing it a lot,” says the composer. “It shows the influence of jazz.”