Two duo piano recitals will be presented in Bjorling Recital Hall on the Gustavus Adolphus College campus this weekend. Husband and wife pianists Du Huang and Xiao Hu open the weekend on Friday, September 30 and Paul and Helen Baumgartner follow with a performance on Saturday, October 1. Both performances begin at 7:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public.
Du Huang and Xiao Hu are currently on the music faculty at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. They appear in recital as guests of the Gustavus Department of Music. Both are honor graduates of the University of Cincinnati and earned their Doctor of Musical Arts from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
For this recital, Huang and Hu will open with Mozart’s three movement Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448, followed by Johannes Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56B. After intermission, the duo will present Variations on a Theme by Paganini by Witold Lutoslawski. The recital ends with a performance of Manuel Infante’s Danses Andalouses.
Saturday’s four-hand piano recital by Professors Emeriti Helen and Paul Baumgartner opens with Mozart’s Sonata in B flat, K. 358, followed by Leos Janacek’s National Dances of Moravia. Continuing with the dance theme, the duo will perform Antonin Dvorak’s Klid, from Op. 68 (known as the “Quiet Woods”) and Waltzes. Op. 38 by Johannes Brahms. Following intermission, the Baumgartners return to present Fanny Mendelssohn-Helsel’s Three Pieces for Four Hands and will conclude their recital with Gabriel Faure’s “Dolly” Suite, Op. 56, for Piano Duet.
Both recitals will be followed by a reception which will be held in the recital hall lobby. The performances are free and open to the public.