“The concert featured the piano extensively, with an intense (…) moment thanks to the duo Irina Krasnyanskaya and Jean-Fabien Schneider, a Franco-Russian couple performing works for piano four hands. The sublime is attained thanks to those two highly gifted artists, with their marvelous rendition of Schubert’s Fantasie: during the exposition’s main theme, the emotional content of each note left no one insensitive.”
La Dépêche, August 2nd, 2010
The Krasnyanskaya-Schneider duo was formed in Russia by two graduates from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. These laureates share a passion for the richness and diversity of the piano duet repertoire, adding to their accomplished talent a refined emotion and an astounding virtuosity. After having led in parallel successful careers as soloists for several years, which brought them both to all 5 continents, they discovered that the piano duo offered an exceptional medium, which allowed them to combine their musical experiences and, due to its two complementary facets, to present at once intimate concerts with piano four hands and spectacular concerts with two pianos.
The duo possesses a very large and varied repertoire, comprising a wide range of original compositions for piano duo, as well as transcriptions of orchestral works. Furthermore, the duo is devoted to the discovery and introdution of little-known works, which have sometimes never performed in the past. Winners of numerous international competition and passionate about the richness and diversity of the repertoire for piano duo, they know how to add with the utmost artistry a wonderful emotion and stunning virtuosity. They also strive to blend in their playing each of their respective cultures: the elegance of the French school, as well as the passion and technical perfection of the Russian school.
PROGRAMME :
- Schubert, Hungarian Divertimento
- Mendelssohn, excerpts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Brahms, walzes
- Ravel, La Valse
- Strauss. The Blue Danube Waltz op. 314 (arr. for piano four hands)
To visit the artists’ website, click here.
To hear the artists perform Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussions, click here. More videos of the duo can be viewed here.