Invisible Dancesis the new album from acclaimed Australian pianists Liam Viney and Anna Grinberg, who perform as the Viney-Grinberg Piano Duo. Through scenes of fantasy and poetry, these musical tableaux highlight the sheer colour and brilliance of piano duets.
This album is permeated by the spirit of dance felt but not seen: from Debussy’s archaic musings on minuet and ballet forms in his Petite Suite, through the obsessive moto perpetuos, French overture, and Austrian folk Ländler in Schubert’s ‘Fantasie’, into the dazzling world of Stravinsky’s dancing puppets and carnival acrobats.
Two Australian pieces generate interesting resonances alongside their European counterparts. Roy Agnew’s Green Valley is a modest pastoral scene of exquisite beauty that echoes the outdoor scene of Debussy’s En bateau. Tim Dargaville’s Invisible Dance provides a counterpoint to the extroverted rhythmic display of Petrushka, a poignant postlude to an album animated by movement and motion.
Liam Viney andAnna Grinberg enjoy an international performance profile involving festivals, major series, live radio broadcasts, orchestras and CD releases. Described as ‘barnstorming’ (The Australian) and ‘the most compelling case for the beauty and variety of two piano repertory this reviewer has ever heard’ (Los Angeles Times), the duo is committed to exploring classics of the two-piano and four-hand repertoire, but also contributes to the ongoing expansion of that literature through commissioning composers. They spent a decade in the United States before taking up their current position as Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Queensland, Australia.
TRACKLISTING
CLAUDE DEBUSSY 1862–1918
Petite Suite
1 I. En bateau
2 II. Cortège
3 III. Menuet
4 IV. Ballet
ROY AGNEW 1891–1944
5 Green Valley
FRANZ SCHUBERT 1797–1828
6 Fantasie in F minor, D940
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 1685–1750
arr. GYÖRGY KURTÁG born 1926
7 Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God’s Time is the Best of All Times): Sonatina from Cantata BWV106 ‘Actus Tragicus’
IGOR STRAVINSKY 1882–1971
Three Movements from Petrushka
8 I. Russian Dance
9 II. Petrushka’s Cell
10 III. Shrovetide Fair
TIM DARGAVILLE born 1962
11 Invisible Dance
Viney-Grinberg Duo
Liam Viney piano
Anna Grinberg piano
