Claude Debussy - "En blanc et noir" - 2. Lent. Sombre
The 2nd movement - which the composer considered the strongest - is dedicated to Lt. Jacques Charlot, a friend associated with Debussy's publisher Durand, who was killed in battle in March 1915. Its quotation is from François Villon's "Ballade contre les enemis de la France" (Ballad Against the Enemies of France). The music is dark and desolate, with distant bugle calls depicting a deserted battlefield strewn with corpses and the carnage of war. Debussy's anti-German sympathies are evident in the ominious rumbling cross rhythms hinting at pounding machines of war and the unexpected quotation of the Lutheran chorale, "Ein feste Burg" in a strident harmonic setting to summon images of the German aggressors.
This video is a live performance from Sfmf's (San Francisco International Music Festival) 10th Anniversary Concert presented at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on January 26, 2013.
SF Music Festival Founders
Influenced by the artistic and cultural experiences of performing at international piano duo festivals in Europe and Russia, the Angelo Duo founded the San Francisco International Music Festival organization (Sfmf) in 2003. Sfmf sponsors the Milton & Peggy Salkind International Piano Duo Festival, which is the only festival of its kind in the United States that is solely dedicated to the art of piano duo. For more information on Sfmf and the 5th Salkind Festival in 2014, visit http://www.sfmf.org/
The Angelo Piano Duo
An Australian and American ensemble based in San Francisco, the Angelo Duo is known for concerts that feature an eclectic mix of musical styles. Alumni of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), Catherine and Anthony met at the Music and Arts Institute in San Francisco. The duo was developed and refined at SFCM under the direction of Milton and Peggy Salkind. The Angelo Duo's international career includes performances in Australia, England, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and the United States. The Angelos have toured five times in Russia and other Eastern European countries and, on several occasions, were the first American artists to perform for these audiences. In 2004, Catherine and Anthony were the recipients of the Mill Valley Art Commission's Milley Award for Achievement in the Musical Arts.
