Reding and Piette: Apostles of the Two Pianos
AN INTERVIEW BY STEPHANE VILLEMIN
In its Legendary
Treasure series,
DOREMI has recently added a three-CD set (DHR-7816-8) that showcases
Janine
Reding and Henry Piette, one of the most acclaimed piano duos of the
twentieth
century. In July, I met with Janine Reding in her home in
As she recalled, her 28
year
career began soon after the Second
World War, when the young Reding-Piette piano duo rapidly attained a
prominent
position in the classical music scene. The primary triumphant
achievement of
their emerging career was the European première of
Bartok’s Concerto for Two
Pianos in 1946 with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Ernest
Ansermet.
The pair had only just graduated from the Chapelle Musicale de la Reine
Elisabeth de Belgique in 1943 and had founded a piano duo barely one
year
before the Bartok performance. It was their first big success on the
international scene, with the performance broadcast over most European
radio
stations. “This was a huge event, and we immediately received a
multitude of
engagements. Every conductor or musician we met—Herbert Von
Karajan, Joseph
Krips, Paul Kletzki, Pierre Monteux, Katchaturian—wanted to hear
us interpret
the Bartok.” Swiss music critic Aloys Mooser declared the duo
“unsurpassable." Music editors Boosey and Hawkes gave them five
years’
exclusive rights to the score of the concerto. They performed it with
all the
major European orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic under the
baton of
Eleazar de Carvalho. Establishing their presence in
By the
1950’s, the duo’s repertoire had grown considerably, and
Martinu’s Concerto for Two Pianos became another signature piece.
"We
became friends with Martinu while rehearsing his Concerto for the
European
première,” recalls Ms. Reding.
This historic
concert, included in the DOREMI set, was recorded at the Festival de
Besançon
in 1955 with the Orchestre National de France under the direction of
another
well-known Czech, Rafael Kubelik. The duo then played the Concerto
across the
world. At the
I asked
Ms. Reding whether she is the kind of artist who has respect
for music critiques. "Well, positive critiques are generally
encouraging,
although it is essential to take into account the professionalism of
the
writer. When the great German music critic Hans Heinz
Stuckenschmidt—perhaps
the most demanding music critic ever—described our duo as
‘two grandiose
pianists’, one is tempted to believe his appraisal,” she
said with a smile.
“Another famous music critic, Emile Vuillermoz, remarked that our
duo had
‘created a new instrument,’ which was exactly what Henry
and I had in mind.
From that perspective, one can no longer consider the medium as
‘chamber
music’, in its usual sense, as both performers are playing the
same instrument,
made of the reunion of two pianos."
Ms.
Reding refused her duo to be classified as contemporary music
players.
"We are often
considered as the foremost interpreters, if not specialists, of such
contemporary composers as Bartok, Martinu, Malipiero, Britten, Milhaud,
Martin,
Hindemith, Katchaturian, Tansman, and Poulenc. Most of them wrote some
music
for our duo, but this music did not fill up our entire repertoire. We
had about
fifteen concertos and sixty pieces, spanning a wide variety of
composers such
as Pergolese, Bach, Schumann, Brahms, and of course Mozart—we
were in demand to
perform the Concerto and the Sonata, the latter being maybe the most
difficult
piece written for the medium. Henry and I loved music of the Romantic
era. I
can not imagine the two-piano repertoire without the Brahms Sonata.
Debussy’s
Lindaraja illustrates also the specificity of our style: if you listen
carefully to the DOREMI recording you will realize a special alchemy
poised
with some individual freedom and a common esthetic shared by two
pianists who
play as one. However, it is true that many contemporary composers wrote
music
specifically for our team, hence many première performances. In
addition to the
Bartok and Martinu Concertos, I recall the première of Poulenc's
concerto with
the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlin, at the Fenice Theater of
Venice,
and in Tokyo (with the NHK orchestra)…the première of the
5th Symphony in ecco of G.F. Malipiero with the RAI
orchestra conducted by Mario Rossi on tour in England…and the
première of the
Malipiero Concerto conducted by Kubelik in Besançon. We also
performed the
world première of Milhaud’s concerto at the Royal Albert
Hall of London. The
conductor was our good friend, Issay Dobrowen."
I have
seen Janine Reding giving master classes—her uncompromising
commitment to her art seems limitless… "We made it clear from
the very
beginning: we would refuse to play transcriptions or pieces for four
hands. We
would perform exclusively the repertoire for two pianos and we would
always
play from memory. Also, my husband and I scorned ‘canned
music’ like
Celibidache and Knappertsbusch. This is why all we have are the
recordings of
the radio broadcasts. And I do not regret anything. Too many artists
abuse the
star system or they are slaves of marketing strategies that have
nothing to do
with art. We preferred to spend our time working together—and we
were hard
workers—or discussing the score. Before we first played
Bartok’s Sonata for Two
Pianos and Percussion in
Instead
of retiring and enjoying the far niente on the French
Riviera, Ms. Reding can not help filling her agenda with new projects.
"I
am very interested and concerned by the young piano duos. I travel a
lot to
give master classes around the world, but I am still looking for the
ideal team
in the new generation that will take up the torch. I am also planning
to
relocate the Reding-Piette International Two Piano Competition, which
was
initiated in the
VILLEMIN
Published in FANFARE, Nov-Dec 2004