This concert presents two 20th century masterworks for duo piano performed by Arabella Teniswood-Harvey and Michael Kieran Harvey. Following their 2016 performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, the couple continue to explore the rhythmic vitality and colourful characterization of music for ballet.

Béla Bartók (1881-1945)

Der wunderbare Mandarin op.19 (1924): Pantomime in einem Akt nach dem Libretto von Menyhert Lengyel

Composed 1918-1924, Béla Bartók’s one-act pantomime ballet The Miraculous Mandarin caused such controversy when it was first performed, that it was immediately withdrawn from the stage. On the surface, the plot – set in a city - revolves around a young woman pimped as a prostitute, and her various interactions with potential clients: a shabby old rake, a shy young man, and finally a wealthy Chinese man, the Mandarin of the title. Bartók’s music, colourfully expressionist in style, portrays the tensions and fluctuations of the human experiences of seduction, desire, love and finally death.

Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918-1970)

Perspectiven: Musik zu einem imaginären Ballett für zwei Klaviere (1955/56)

Dating from the late 1950s, Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Perspectiven is considered a pivotal work in the composer’s oeuvre. Subtitled ‘Music for an imaginary ballet’, the writing is both gestural and dramatic, with Zimmermann exploiting rhythmic complexity and canonic techniques that evoke dance choreography. 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of Zimmermann’s birth and this concert is one of the many tributes around the world commemorating the German-born composer.