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Four hands, one piano
It’s a wonder how one piano
keyboard can accommodate four hands, especially those of such accomplished virtuosi as Steven and Stijn Kolacny. But these
two brothers have honed their joint skills from a very early age, and their extraordinary talent was fully on display at a recent
recital at the IDB Cultural Center. Champions of contemporary Flemish composers, their IDB performance included a piece by
Westerlinck, as well as selections from Schubert, Ravel, Brahms, Satie and Dvorak. A
youthful vocation
One of the premiere musical groups in Washington, D.C., the Washington
Chamber Symphony String Ensemble, played to a full house at an IDB performance in September. The 35-member orchestra,
whose repertoire includes works that it has commissioned and premiered, makes a special effort to reach young people, who
make up a third of its annual audience of 15,000.
For guitar lovers
Aficionados of the classical guitar had a rare treat in
October when not one, but four masters of the plucked string performed at the IDB. The group, called Entre-Quatre, hails from
Asturias, Spain, where it has achieved a considerable following of contemporary chamber music devotees. The group has
premiered more than 30 compositions created especially for their unusual instrumentation. Their performance of works by six
Spanish composers met with an enthusiastic response from the IDB audience.
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