September 5 - "Grosse Fuge" at Juilliard's Convocation

Beethoven's second-to-last opus, the "Grosse Fuge" for two pianists (Opus 134) ... is ... monstrously difficult. Here Liz and I trot around, thinking we've composed some pretty nasty works for piano duo. Little did we know that Beethoven had set the precedent with his thorny and intensely virtuosic fugue, culled from his late string quartet and deftly arranged to be performed by four hands on one keyboard. Beethoven gave us a run for our money; we did the best we could in the time we had, but it will take another couple years with this in our repertoire before we can really give it the justice it deserves.

Check out our duo blog, "Where Soloists Fear to Tread," to read Liz's take on the performance today.