Concert Review: Duo Firenze at Trinity Church, NYC 4/2/09

Not an Italian group: in fact, there’s another Duo Firenze, a piano/guitar unit and they’re from Virginia. This duo, violinists Brooke Quiggins and Elizabeth Young of the Larchmont Music Academy made their stage debut together in Italy, therefore, probably, the name. If you think that playing in an orchestra might be difficult, imagine playing a duo show. Your timing, interplay and phrasing have to be flawless. But these two moved as close to the audience as the space would allow, then locked in and delivered a performance that had the crowd roaring. Not bad for just two unamplified violins.

 

They warmed up with Haydn’s speedy, comfortably consonant Duetto VI in D Major, then offered a stark contrast with the pensive atmospherics of It Don’t All Come Easy by contemporary composer Kyle Saulnier. The high point of the show was Romantic composer Moritz Moszkowski’s Suite in G Minor, Op. 71, a beautiful four-section partita that deserves to be better-known than it is. Duo Firenze brought up an unannounced guest pianist to join them in the two warmly bright allegro sections, the strikingly dark, practically morbid lento assai and then reverting to the vividly Chopinesque color of the opening movements. Pablo de Sarasate’s Navarra, Op. 33, a fiery Spanish dance was a clinic in split-second synchronization;  the two then concluded the show with Limerock by contemporary composer Mark O’Connor, plaintive and somewhat astringent but still a showcase for sizzling yet seemingly effortless runs down the scale. The crowd wanted more but didn’t get it: time was up. Since Trinity archives all their concerts, you can see the whole performance streaming here for free.