Ian Munro & Ying Ho: From the East

In this exciting new collaboration, respected pianists Ian Munro and Ying Ho perform a program of works written for four hands playing one piano.

The concept of this concert, titled From the East, is based on the idea of musical “souvenirs” from foreign land. The notion of the exotic. Eastern influences permeate throughout the chosen works.

Dvorák’s ever popular Slavonic Dances are paired with Brahms’ Souvenir de la Russie, a series of fantasies on Russian folk tunes and gypsy melodies. Schumann’s Pictures from the East was inspired by Arabic poetry, the maqāmāt by Al-Hariri of Basra. Barber’s Souvenirs is a suite of six dance movements, inspired by the music he heard from around 1915 to 1920 when he and his mother would visit the Palm Court of the Plaza Hotel in New York.