Posted 9:27 AM by Blah blah

Veda Piano Duo (Classical Music)

From lowbrow to highbrow...

Last night I went with my friend David to hear three women give a classical music recital at West Valley College. The two wonderful pianists, Ekaterina Gueorguieva (Katie) and Judy Huehn, are called the Veda Piano Duo. I know Judy and she had asked me to come. The flutist, Shannon Thompson, was also stunning in her precision and the lyrical quality she gave the first piece, the Sonata for Flute and Piano by Francis Poulenc. Several audience members came from Katie's choir at church.

Katie and Judy: the Veda Piano Duo. Both graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She and Katie are going soon to Sicily and other parts of Europe, to do recitals and compete in a piano competition.

It was the first time I'd ever seen a piano duet! Judy and Katie played in utmost synchronicity on a huge Steinway with pianos on opposite ends. Besides the sonata, they played three other pieces from their first, recently released CD. They played Suite No. 2, Opus 17 by Rachmaninoff (the third and fourth movements), En Blanc et Noir by Debussy, and La Valse by Ravel. You may listen a bit if you sign up with MP3.com.

Katie told me that she and Judy had been dying to perform those pieces for so long. The Rachmaninoff was a showoff piece---very technically tough. "Avec Emportement," the 1st movement of En Blanc Et Noir by Claude Debussy, was my favorite of all last night. Very lyrical and poetic. Maybe I've been corrupted by my housemate's rap music and by modern movie music, but I tend to like music that has more of a "goal" emotionally. To my layman's ears, some of the other pieces were impressive but seemed to wander all over the place. They had less effect on me. I stress I have been out of the music world for a long time, so my opinion doesn't matter more than an armchair philosopher's!

After the concert, I met an old man who knows Judy. A pianist, he's a friend of their teacher from the SF Conservatory, and he was entranced by all of their playing. In awe, he thought Shannon was fantastic enough to play her flute in "any orchestra in the world."

"I normally don't like to see piano duets," he said.

"Why?" I said.

"Because there's so much to appreciate. I have to keep going from one pianist to the other!"

"It's like watching a ping-pong match. You mean you're greedy?"

"Exactly! It's like having two women---both are so tempting it's hard to decide whom to have first."

Go get 'em in Europe, Katie and Judy!