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 The American identical twins, Richard
and John Contiguglia,
are among the most acclaimed and versatile
duo-pianists in the world today. Since their
London debut in 1962, following which the critic
of the London Daily Telegraph described their
playing as setting “a
new standard for this intimate form of
music-making,”
Richard and John have shared their artistry with
audiences throughout the world. Many of their
recordings of Liszt and Bartók Duos on the
Connoisseur Society label were modern-day
premieres. Their Beethoven/Liszt
9th Symphony
recording received the Liszt Society of
Budapest’s Grand Prix Award in the
first record competition of the Society’s
history in 1975. Recently they received their
2nd Grand Prix Award from the Society, following
the release in 2012 of their Liszt-Bartók
CD on the Gemini CD
Classics label. Their performances at the
Award Presentation Ceremony on Oct. 22, 2012 can
be viewed on YouTube.
The summer of 2011 brought them to Australia to
participate in Townsville’s 21st Festival of
Chamber Music, with its special emphasis on the
music of Franz Liszt and Percy Grainger, while
in 2008 they were the featured pianists for the
annual celebration of Dame
Myra Hess Day at London’s National
Gallery.
The
most extraordinary event of the twins’ youth
occured in their hometown of Auburn, New York,
when, as 12 year olds, they performed on a recital
with the legendary pianist-composer, Percy
Grainger. Following the event, Grainger presented
the young boys with many of his two-piano scores,
some with touching dedications: “to Richard
and John Contiguglia, from their admiring
colleague”; “in admiration of their splendid
playing”; “in tonal fellowship.”
Richard
and John have performed with major orchestras
throughout the world, among them, the Cleveland
Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Atlanta
Symphony, the National Symphony, the Toronto
Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Netherlands Chamber
Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. They
have been heard, both in recital and with
orchestra, in numerous prestigious venues,
including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln
Center, Washington’s Kennedy Center, Chicago’s
Orchestra Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and
Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
The
twins graduated in the top 1% of their class at
Yale, with identical averages of 91%, receiving
their BA degrees summa cum laude, with
philosophical orations. Two years later they
received M.Mus. degrees from the Yale Graduate
School of Music at the top of their class.
Subsequently, they studied for four years in
London with the great British pianist, Dame Myra
Hess.
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| Richard
and John Contiguglia perform at the Liszt
Grand Prix Award Concert |
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Richard
and John Conitguglia were
awarded the Grand
Prix du Disque
by the Liszt Society of
Budapest, Hungary on October
22, 2012.
Below are performances from
the award concert.
These
videos may also be viewed on
Richard and John’s YouTube
channel at
www.youtube.com/ContigugliaDuo
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Grand Galop
Chromatique by Franz Liszt
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"Sonnambula"
Fantasy by Franz Liszt
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Andante
Religioso - (Beethoven) Franz
Liszt
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| Contiguglia
Duo mentioned in BBC Music Magazine |
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 The
Contiguglia Duo are mentioned
in an article about Dame Myra
Hess in BBC Music Magazine,
2015.
“Her
pianistic legacy lives on in a few
pupils, now distinguished pianists
themselves: Stephen Kovacevich, Richard
and John Contiguglia and the late Yonty
Solomon who in turn taught Piers Lane.”
-
BBC Music Magazine, 2015 View
full article
Richard
and John Contiguglia performed a special
concert on Dame Myra Hess Day at The
National Gallery, London.
Click here for
more details...
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| Contiguglia
Duo featured in WCPE's magazine, Quarter
Notes |
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 Sibling
Revelry
by
Patricia Crane
“Anyone
with a brother or sister can tell you:
the sibling relationship is delicate,
equal parts fraught and rewarding. If
they’re too far apart, siblings can feel
like strangers; too close, and the
competition can be fierce. Spend five
minutes in a car with two kids in their
“I’m telling Mom!” phase, and you can
attest to the high emotions and singular
energy that exist between siblings.
But
take that unique relationship and mix in
some prodigious creative talent, and you
have the makings of a dynasty.
The
modern landscape of Classical music
teems with siblings following in the
footsteps of Fanny and Felix Mendelsohn
and the Strauss brothers. Today’s
sibling collaborations run the
gamut—from exclusive partnerships to
pursuing individual careers and
collaborating on special projects.
Together
literally all their lives, identical
twins Richard and John Contiguglia are
the most famous duo-pianists playing
today. Making their world debut in 1962,
they’ve spent their joint career
bringing oft-forgotten duo-piano pieces
back into the limelight.”
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WCPE, Quarter Notes, North Carolina, Fall
2015 View full article
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Last
release on the Gemini CD Classics
label |
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2012
Grand Prix du Disque
Liszt Society of Hungary
Liszt
– Operatic
Fantasies & Bartók
– Suite for
Two Pianos
Richard
and John Contiguglia,
Duo-Pianists
Early
in our career as a professional
duo-piano team we discovered
duos of Liszt and of Bartók that
had never been previously
recorded and had seldom been
heard in modern-day public
concerts. The duos of Liszt were
only available from collections
in museum archives or in rare
Russian editions. We were so
impressed with the quality of
the music that we performed much
of it on our recitals in Europe
and in the United States and
finally made, in the early
1970s, what came to be several
historic recordings for
Connoisseur Society Records. The
resulting LPs have long since
been unavailable and were never
reissued as CDs.
We are
pleased to be able to offer once
again the original Connoisseur
Society recording of Liszt’s
Operatic Fantasies and a live
radio broadcast recording for
VARA Radio in Holland of
Bartók’s Suite for Two Pianos,
Op. 4b.
“You owe it
to yourself to seek out this
recording – performances of
this caliber are quite
rare.”
- American
Record Guide, July/August
2012
Read
full article
“This is the
most amazing recording of
two-piano music that I can
remember”
(Connoisseur Society Liszt LP)
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Gramophone, December 1975.
View
More Information
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Contiguglia
Duo’s Liszt/Bartok CD reviewed in the American
Record Guide |
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 “...the works here
still have few recordings for
comparison, and the ones I know of are
of no competition to these.”
“The
results here are spectacular.”
“...the
Contiguglia brothers give a knock-out
performance.”
“You
owe it to yourself to seek out this
recording – performances of this caliber
are quite rare.”
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American Record Guide Read full
article
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Contiguglia Duo
reviewed in CVNC |
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 “From a front row
balcony seat, the Sonata was a feast for
the eyes and ears and a constantly
evolving puzzle for the mind! Balance
between the pianists and percussionists
was excellent and the co-ordination was
very precise. The execution of the
complex contrapuntal layering of the
first movement was breathtaking. The
eerie night music of the second movement
was perfectly spun out. The high jinks
of the finale brought the unusually
large audience to its feet in prolonged
applause for a wonderful performance of
a too seldom heard masterpiece. May the
Contigulia Brothers return to Elon soon
with, maybe, another memorable
Schubertaid or an evening of Mozart.”
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CVNC, North Carolina Read full
article
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Jessica
Duchen’s Classical Music Blog
reviews Dame Myra Hess Day performance at
the National Gallery |
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 “Lunchtime
saw an extraordinary
performance by the Contiguglia
Twins from New York, who
played the socks off Howard
Ferguson, Schubert and
Beethoven. They came to
Britain to study with Hess as
young boys and played the
Schubert Variations on an
Original Theme for their
Wigmore Hall debut. And...
I’ve heard of identical, but
this was quite something. I’m
reliably informed that you can
tell them apart when you know
them well.”
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Jessica Duchen’s Classical Music
Blog Read
More About Dame Myra Hess
Day
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Contiguglia
Duo’s Beethoven/Liszt CD reviewed in the American
Record Guide |
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“I enjoy
transcriptions as much or more than
most, and this is a great one, of the
greatest piece, with a masterly
performance, excellent recorded sound,
and perceptive notes.”
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American Record Guide Read full
article
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Contiguglia
Duo reviewed in The News-Gazette, Champaign/Urbana,
IL |
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 “The piano duo of
the identical Contiguglia twins is one
of the most famous exemplars of this
branch of the piano field. They have
shown their superb discipline and fine
musicianship here in years past as guest
artists with Hobson’s Sinfonia da
Camera. On Monday night, they aroused to
a high level of enthusiasm the members
of a moderate-sized audience in Smith
Music Hall.”
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The News-Gazette, Champaign/Urbana
Read full article
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Contiguglia
Duo reviewed in the News Times of
Danbury, CT |
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 “When
it came to Mozart’s concerto, the
Contiguglias’ four hands seemed to be
playing with one mind and heart. The
Allegro movement was rich in thematic
development, flowing back and forth
without repeating, but constantly moving
along with a natural progression.
Exchanging phrases smoothly in this
brilliant dialogue, the twins’
cooperative effort was a model of a
well-functioning family. The final
movement included cadenzas and ritards
performed with amazing synchronicity.
The twins knew each other’s parts as
their own. My apologies go to the RSO,
as my attention was completely captured
by the pianists.”
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News Times, Danbury, CT Read full article
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Contiguglia
Duo reviewed in the Classical Voice of
North Carolina |
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“The playing was as
astonishing as the music itself”
“And
the best artists — in which august group
the Contiguglias belong — find new
meaning in every repeat performance. So
there was nothing routine about this
concert”
“I
heard things I’d never noticed before,
due to the great precision and clarity
of the performance. ’Twas Art with a
capital “A,” all ’round.”
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Classical Voice of North Carolina
Read full
article
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