The violin-piano duet of Guillaume Tardif and Roger Admiral, from the Department of Music, gave their debut recital at the historic Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on Friday, March 25th, performing Niccolo Paganini's 24 Caprices for solo violin to a full and enthusiastic house.
In an email following the performance, Norman Dunfee, President and Executive Director of MidAmerica Productions, the sponsor of the chamber series that promoted the concert, qualified the recital as "wonderful, a real pleasure" and added that "the considerable audience was thoroughly pleased".
While in New York City, if you ask the way to Carnegie Hall, you should expect the traditional answer: "practice, practice, practice"."We indeed rehearsed very diligently for this concert and presented the work at various venues in Canada, Switzerland, Hungary, and South Korea before heading to Carnegie Hall", shares Tardif, an Associate Professor and String Area Coordinator at the Department of Music. "Certainly, I studied these very demanding pieces for many years. We especially enjoyed championing this creative, newer version with piano. We believe it had not been heard in New York City or even the United States before, and we hope others will be drawn to use it as well".
The piano accompaniment to the celebrated solo violin works was composed by Raymond Gallois-Montbrun in 1954, and, says Tardif, "humorously touches on various musical styles, such as those of Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Prokofiev, Messiaen, and even some jazz".
Overall, concludes Tardif, "this concert was a particularly enjoyable and meaningful event for us, and we are grateful for the support of the Faculty of Arts and Department of Music in making it happen".