This concert is an evening of dance-inspired music for piano duet, performed by two of London's leading pianists. Three pieces by Percy Grainger display the influence of folksong and morris dancing, filled with Grainger's characteristic vigour and humour. The rhythms and harmonies of modern jazz and funk are explored in Iain Farrington's virtuosic Dance Craze. Maurice Ravel's haunting, sensuous and hypnotic depiction of the waltz finds its fullest expression in La valse, originally intended as a ballet. Finally, one of the most revolutionary and astonishing works of ballet music, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, is performed in its original piano duet version.
Iain Farrington has an exceptionally busy and diverse career as a pianist, organist, composer and arranger. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London and at Cambridge University. He has made numerous recordings, and has broadcast on BBC Television, Classic FM and BBC Radio 3. As a solo pianist, accompanist, chamber musician and organist, Iain has performed at all the major UK venues and abroad in the USA, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Malaysia, Hong Kong and all across Europe. He has worked with many of the country's leading musicians, including Willard White, Bryn Terfel, Paul McCartney and Lesley Garrett. Iain played the piano at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics with Rowan Atkinson, the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, broadcast to a global audience of around a billion viewers. He has performed on numerous occasions at the BBC Proms, including acclaimed solo performances in 2007 on the Royal Albert Hall organ.
John Reid's career to date has shown him to be a pianist of notable versatility and range, with wide experience as an outstanding chamber musician, song accompanist, soloist and exponent of new music. Increasingly in demand as a teacher, he is a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. John studied at Clare College, Cambridge and at the Royal Academy of Music with Michael Dussek. In November 2017, he made his concerto debut in Germany with the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck (Brahms's No 1) and he continues his collaboration with Aurora Orchestra, both as principal pianist and as a soloist in a series of the complete Mozart concertos at Kings Place in London. He also plays regularly with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.