Brighton Year-Round 2026
Viola Lenzi and Isabella Gori Four Hands Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Viola Lenzi and Isabella Gori
Genre: Live Music, Music
Venue: St Nicholas Church, Dyke Road, Brighton
Festival: Brighton Year-Round
Low Down
In the blaze of a heatwave some cool: four hands one piano. A remarkable piano duo Viola Lenzi and Isabella Gori. They met at Trinity Laban and formed their duo there, known as the Stabilis Duo.
It’d be wonderful to see this superbly talented duo bring much else they’ve already performed. Stunning.
Review
In the blaze of a heatwave some cool: four hands one piano. A remarkable piano duo Viola Lenzi and Isabella Gori. They met at Trinity Laban and formed their duo there, known as the Stabilis Duo. The end of this review directs you to their online performances. Today they specifically explore arrangements of symphonic proportions.
Ravel’s Rhapsodie Espagnole is known in its orchestral guise but Ravel wrote this version first in 1906. It’s a work of expansive sultry sororities. And dusked and brushed with habanera rhythms and sudden shafts of bright passagework alternating with thunderous elements in the bass.
The palettes of four hands is wide but dense too and it needs crisp articulation to keep the moving parts airborne. The cascading glissando alternate with some bright filament of melody; but the Spanish flavour like an ostinato rhythm if not so insistent pervades it all. Entrancing and hypnotic. It culminates in an exciting sweep of bravura as if all the dancers of Seville blaze into the street. With glissandi rippling up it it seems over. But.
The two soloists bring poise and a structurally exciting way to rein in then overleap with their climaxes. Thrilling.
Rimsky-Korsakov another great orchestrator wasn’t known for writing piano music. But here we encounter a central section of his Sherharazade Op 35 from 1888 rendered for piano duet.
Taking the central sea voyage section allows some pause and wonderment and less of the Sultan’s tetchy ire.
It’s a bewitching and thoroughly romantic production. The full exotic melodies lead in and the harmonies despite the orchestral palette aren’t overly intricate like Ravel’s phenomenal colours. Yes Rimsky is a great orchestrator and often a great melodist and there’s moments of repose and yes intricacy here too. The lilt and thrust between the two soloists lines are raptly caught. Again it’s the quiet moments that impress in contrast to the bravura.
Finally the first piece the duo learned together, the four hand version of Gershwin’s 1924 Rhapsody in Blue. There was a personal note: four hands is fun but very uncomfortable for the body, and quite challenging. That’s one reason we hear relatively little of it.
The ease with which this work slides into four hands is partly down to Gershwin’s pianism and partly to the uncomplicated harmonies – as opposed to the fiendish rhythms – and they come across as fiendish here. It’s a great showcase and the transposition of the opening clarinet for instance beautifully shaded with a twanginess in the upper register. And when it returns. The piano part is nearly pointed up on occasion. The duo smash the last turd in a joyous paean to the Jazz Age.
The only slight downside is that on this occasion this is mostly music we know, arranged – the Ravel at least is an alternative version. Time was short and the excerpt from Milhaud’s four-hand Scaramouche had to be sacrificed.
There’s quite an array of dedicated four hand music out there and one imagines some of it is in this duos repertoire. Masses from Schubert – the duo play the famous Fantasia in F minor D940 (see below) – and they tour with Poulenc’s perky early 1918 Sonata for this combination too. It’d be wonderful to see this superbly talented duo bring those and much else they’ve already performed. Stunning.
There’s a YouTube channel Lenzi has established with performances of their work (and in combos with other artists) which I urge anyone to seek out. Just google Viola Lenzi Music, YouTube.
