Symphony doubles the pleasure

The Spokane Symphony’s concert Friday will be a game of pairs.

Two pianists will perform two concertos for two pianos. Two conductors will conduct works on the program. And the featured symphonic work has two composers … well, almost.

The Israeli piano duo of Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg will play concertos by Mozart and Poulenc. The symphony’s music director, Eckart Preu, will share the podium with his older brother, Hans-Peter, who will premiere his “Children of the Sun” written especially for this concert.

And the program will end with Reinhold Gliere’s Symphony No. 3 (“Il’ya Murometz”) in a version arranged by Leopold Stokowski.

Eckart Preu first encountered the team of Silver and Garburg when conducting in Jerusalem.

“We did the Mozart Two-Piano Concerto with the Jerusalem Symphony,” Preu says. “I was really struck by the delicacy and sensibility for the ‘Mozart sound.’

“And I was astonished by their ensemble playing; it is very difficult for two pianists to play exactly together when they cannot even see each other’s hands. But they have discovered how to do it.”

Preu’s second experience with them was with the Stamford (Conn.) Symphony last year when they played the Poulenc concerto.

“There is so much Mozart in the Poulenc, but in a crazy way,” he says. “So I though we should have them here to do both.”

Both Silver and Garburg were born in Israel in the mid-1970s and studied there and in Hanover, Germany, with Arie Vardi. The married couple, who have solo careers as well as performing together, divide their time between homes in Hanover and Israel when not on tour.

“They really try to explore everything that has been written for two pianos and piano duet,” Preu says. “So when I discovered in the Moldenhauer Archives that Bartok had written cadenzas for the Mozart concerto, I asked them to take a look and they agreed right away.

“So this will be a surprise part of our yearlong centennial celebration of Hans Moldenhauer’s legacy,” he says of the late Spokane musicologist.

As for the presence of another Preu on the podium, he says: “My brother conducts at the opera at Radebuel near Dresden. He composes and is interested in writing for the movies. So he has come over to check out Hollywood, so I asked him to do something for us.

“I have always been the typical little brother, following in Hans-Peter’s footsteps: We went to the same schools, we sang in the same boys’ choir, we studied with the same teachers. But since we are five years apart, the political situation changed and I was able to go to Paris to study where he was not able to do that.”

“Children of the Sun” gets it name from an English translation of the Spokane tribe’s name.

Gliere’s Symphony No. 3 will conclude Friday’s concert.

“Each year I have tried to introduce our audience to some big, unfamiliar work,” Preu says. “And this year I wanted to do a big Russian work with this symphony which has the title ‘Il’ya Murometz.’

“It is really a big, big tone poem about the legends that have been built around a real knight who lived a thousand years ago but whose adventures have become legendary.”

Gliere wrote a massive descriptive symphony in 1911, nearly an hour-and-a-half long in a complete performance.

“Practically every conductor has his own shortened version,” says Preu. “But I discovered that Stokowski had worked with Gliere on his version and, since this seems to have Gliere’s seal of approval, we are playing Stokowski’s version.

“It’s only 40 minutes long, but Gliere already used a very big orchestra, and Stokowski couldn’t resist making some dramatic additions of his own. I think it is very effective.”

Pete Jensen of KXLY radio will provide narration.

Pianists Silver and Garburg will join host Verne Windham for Classical Chats, the symphony’s pre-performance conversation, today at 12:15 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall. The 30-minute program will be televised on City Cable Channel 5.

The duo, along with Preu, also will discuss the music on the program as part of the Gladys Brooks Pre-Concert Talks series in the INB Performing Arts Center auditorium on Friday at 7 p.m.