AKA Duo Conquers Los Angeles! – Polish Music Center

At USC

The celebrations of the fortieth anniversary of the USC Polish Music Center, which began last fall with the ‘Celebrating Henryk Wars’ events, continued at the very end of March with more Polish music performed by truly excellent foreign-born performers. Held on Saturday March 29, our annual Spring Concert featured the award-winning AKA Duo—two Japanese artists specializing in violin and piano music by, among others, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Miłosz Magin, Aleksander Tansman and Mieczysław Weinberg.

For their Los Angeles engagements, violinist Seina Matsuoka and pianist Yuto Kiguchi flew in directly from Vienna (where they had just appeared at the legendary Musikverein on March 27) to perform at USC’s Alfred Newman Recital Hall on a sunny early spring Saturday afternoon. Their program opened with a spirited delivery of the rarely-heard Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 13 by Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Written during his studies of composition in Berlin, this extensive and virtuoso work was praised by Johannes Brahms, who commented about the Sonata being a “real concert work.”

Next, the AKA Duo presented Miłosz Magin’s pastel-colored Andante pour violon et piano, a work written in 1963 after Magin and his family left Poland for Portugal and France. Similar instrumental colors and great sense of musical style were on display in AKA Duo’s interpretation of the Second Sonata for Violin and Piano by Aleksander Tansman. This 1919 work by a twenty-four-year-old composer already indicated his predilection for French music, and his emergence as one of the leading composers on the Parisian music scene confirmed this fact only a few years later.

The rousing finale of the PMC’s Spring Concert came with the vigorous Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes, Op. 47 of Mieczysław Weinberg. This composition gave both performers ample opportunity to display their impeccable musicianship and dazzling virtuosity, which was instantly recognized with a standing ovation by the assembled audience.

The sizeable crowd who had successfully navigated the registration procedures currently required for visiting the USC campus proceeded after the concert to sample the anniversary cake and refreshments at the Herklotz Courtyard adjacent to Newman Recital Hall. The PMC staff were especially pleased and honored to recognize Dr. Zbigniew Petrovich (pictured below with AKA Duo) and his wife, Dr. Zofia Petrovich, at this concert and at the reception afterwards. Together with Wanda Wilk and her husband, Dr. Stefan Wilk, in late January 1985 the Petrovichs were among the founding members of the USC Polish Music Center. Other important guests included members of the concert’s sponsoring organizations, such as Stanley and Helena Kolodziey of the Polish Center in LA and Jennifer Audette and Teresa Sokolowska of POLAM Federal Credit Union, as well as Lech Dzierżanowski all the way from the National Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw.

At HMLA

The next day, on an overcast Sunday afternoon, March 30, the AKA Duo presented a different program of music by Polish-Jewish composers at the Holocaust Museum Los Angeles. Located in Pan-Pacific Park in mid-city, this concert attracted a capacity crowd who were equally enthusiastic about the selections of violin and piano music presented on the program. The four-movement Suite Op. 82 by Maurycy Moszkowski was delivered by Seina Matsuoka and Yuto Kiguchi with so much of easy-flowing charm that the audience could not resist applauding after every movement of this very attractive work.

The same enthusiastic reception was clearly in evidence after the AKA Duo’s performance of Tansman’s Second Sonata for Violin and Piano. Afterwards, Mieczysław Weinberg’s pensive and nostalgic two songs (transcribed for violin and piano) briefly transported the listeners into a more contemplative mood, but the bravura reading of Weinberg’s Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes that followed once again catapulted the audience from their seats at the rousing conclusion of this work.

Following the extended round of applause, the AKA Duo regaled the audience with a charming and delicious rubato-laden interpretation of Fritz Kreisler’s Syncopation for violin and piano. As the reverberations of music slowly began to fade from the cavernous interior, the reception graciously organized by our Holocaust Museum partners provided an opportunity for the audience to chat with the artists and exchange the impressions from this very successful concert.