Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung

Hi, Michael.

Hi. How are you?

Thank you, likewise.

Well, thank you.

I would say his sound and the range he produces. He can go from the most beautiful pianissimos to the roaring fortissimos, but always beautifully done. And, um, when you always think that, oh, he can't go any further, he always pushes the envelope. And that's what I admire most.

Thank you.

No, just It's just like a couple's game show.

I I I think the the the commitment and the um the authenticity of her playing. Every note uh really speaks to you and it comes from from her heart and her soul, and she's able to um to make it come alive, you know? And uh the range also of those emotions and colors is incredible. And and just the level of commitment of every single note—of her only—but of every single note she plays.

Yes.

Yes.

Um well, I was I've been obsessed with Petrushka since I was 8 years old. Um I heard uh a two-handed version, which is an abridged suite, just three movements of Petrushka. It's a piano showpiece. Uh and then I went to the to the sheet music store with my dad—I was 8 years old—and asked for the score of Petrushka. And the clerk like was like, "You? You little boy want Petrushka?" And so he looked, and all he could find was a full orchestral score and this version of uh the complete ballet that uh Stravinsky did for uh one piano four hands. Uh and so I kept that, and I studied the score with recordings. It was uh Claudio Abbado and London Symphony, I remember. And I was just obsessed with this music—the colors, the story. I didn't know much about the story itself because I didn't watch the ballet until many years later, but somehow the music itself was telling me so much more than the story, even. Uh and then I waited all those years to find someone crazy enough to attempt the the the version for piano four hands, and that was Lucille. Uh and since then, we've played it, you know, all over the world, on tours in Siberias and uh and major major cities and small cities. And and recently, we recorded it for uh Signum um on a CD and then uh even more recently during the pandemic for a broadcast from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Or sooner.

Minimal. That's the secret of our success—minimal. No, but honestly, um I think we have the same musical vision and we know each other's playing, so we bypass a lot of, you know, time and we just get to the core. We already know what who will sound better on top or on bottom or on piano one or on piano two. We've rarely changed once we've learned the parts. Uh we've rarely switched it up unless, you know, we have to play it with other people. Um and then somehow, we just kind of know what kind of sound we want, direction we want, musical structure. So, as as I said before, we don't really talk so much. We kind of like nod, and we understand. Very little.

Yeah, I mean, piano four hands is very very tricky. I mean, you were saying about reading symphonies with friends and that there's that social part of piano four hands, which is amazing and it's a lot of fun. But then when it comes to actually performing as a piano duo, especially complex scores like the Stravinsky, um that's really high-precision work uh that either either, you know, it works beautifully or it just crashes because there's just no room for error, really.

That's true, so you're understanding the dynamic, how it works. There's that. And also the fact that in a piece like Petrushka, so someone usually, I mean, this goes back and forth, but uh someone is in the driver's seat. And I think it's easier to drive from the bottom. So, um you know.

Well, Petrushka is more complicated because it goes back and forth. There are times it's so extreme. It's really trying to cram so many colors, so many instruments, so many stories and characters into one instrument—the piano and four hands—that that, for example, there are moments where Lucille has to take the pedal, which is something that in in Schubert and Mozart, is always it never happens. It's always the bottom takes care, you know, the one that has the harmonies. And so so in Petrushka, it's a little more complicated. But normally, I think, um I love playing top, where you have a feeling that you never get as a pianist in chamber music of um being able to um to unfold a beautiful melody, and the rest of the texture is already there waiting for you. It's incredible. That's how a singer must feel like and how a violinist must feel like and and we never get that. So, in the like Schubert, it's it's just so liberating. And and there, you need a lot of trust, you know, because uh

Well, we've done a lot of uh Brahms' Hungarian Dances. I'm at the bottom. Um what else? Uh Ravel, we kind of switch, or Debussy. Sometimes I'm on top. It it just depends on the piece itself. Uh but

Ma mère l'Oye and the suite, of course. We did La valse, two pianos. Pianos, and I'm second piano for that. Um

We did Debussy, um En blanc et noir, and I'm on top for that. So, uh

I don't know, it's just how the piece is construct- constructed, how it sounds. Just the textures. I tend to gravitate on um a bit more atmospheric, a bit more uh clear clearer textures for myself and where I can drive a little more emotional impact. And uh Alessio goes more for the rhythmical impact, and and

It's interesting. Like like uh maybe it's something that you shouldn't have asked, because now now we're thinking about it. No, it um recently, we did uh Afternoon of a Faun. Uh Debussy, transcribed by Ravel. And um we decided right away that I should be on top. And there was no questions asked. I don't know why.

Yeah, and usually I think psychologically, I would have taken the top for that piece, but we just knew It's just just he would sound better, but and there was no argument. We just, yeah. It's decided.

I honestly think she's so so great that we could work either way. So So I just I don I don't have to worry about which which part to choose.

I think so. I think there's a a pull, uh just to see um happy people or people enjoying what they do together. And, you know, like we're both pianists, we don't need to play with each other if you're a violinist or cellist or an instrumentalist, you need someone there with you. But as a pianist, we're used to this kind of solo world. And um I think we're cute together.

It's a It's something that we never we never really pursued or pushed. I mean, the people asked us and then we did it. We loved it and then um and then they keep asking. It's it's interesting. Again, it's not a need as a pianist to find another pianist to play with. Um but our criteria so far, we feel so lucky, has been, you know, if it's repertoire that we love and places that we like to go to, then we say yes. That's that's been that simple. I wish everything was that simple in life.

Usually, it doesn't end up well. One way or the other, the playing or the marriage. I don't know. I don't know what it is.

Well, there's Claude Frank and Lillian Kallir, that that toured a lot.

But in our kind of generation or lifetime,

I don't think it's so I mean, again, I think piano four hand is a highly specialized thing and um there are a lot of great pianists that that are happy to get together and play at festivals, for example. But I I honestly think that that you cannot get the same um results, um or you cannot go in in in depth as much. I mean, you can do that with a violinist, with a singer. I mean, I we both play with a lot of people and it's always uh always great, but I think for the fact that you're sharing the same instrument makes it that much more complicated. So, to have a in-house pianist is quite essential, I think.

I have played it I haven't played it with uh with Lucille. I played it once with uh another great pianist, Orion Weiss.

And that was great. And I I've done a few few things with Orion, and it's been always always great. Um but very different.

You know, there's an incredible recording that that resurfaced recently of uh and it was like a homemade recording of uh Rachmaninoff kind of improvising his own made-up arrangement of the Symphonic Dances for one for two hands, which is unbelievable.

Singing it for Ormandy. You know, to and he's like singing. You heard that. It's amazing. And it's probably one of the best performances of that piece, that or some of the most amazing piano playing, just even just that alone. Incredible.

I would love to go to Siena right now.

Oh my God, that's a very good question. Uh there there's a long list of of dream works that I've been wanting to program or hear and uh although I my my criteria is never to force music upon musicians, and I want to listen to their suggestions as well. So, it's uh usually, I start with one work that I really want to include in the program. And uh so far, I've been programming for 5 years. The festival is going to be in its 33rd year, but I took over only from from 2017, the artistic part of it. And so I start with one work, and then I create a balanced program around it. I I'm not a big fan for festivals of of themes, themed program, because uh I think sometimes it can be very interesting, intellectually it's always interesting, but uh it's like a meal, you know? Uh you want it to be as balanced, as as satisfying as as possible. And then the themes actually create themselves, you know? You can uh you can tweak uh this or that piece or move it to another concert and make make a nice nice theme, but that's never my my starting point. But it always starts from from dreams, like thinking, you know, how would uh Emmanuel Pahud and Ian Bostridge sound in Ravel uh with Lucille? And so we program Chansons madécasses. And I know incredible. I mean, it's something that that Ian hadn't done it. Emmanuel, of course, done many times, but not with Ian, and his voice was just unbelievable in it. It was a discovery for all of us, including him. And so things like that, you know, it's really I feel like a kid in a in a candy store.

That's my inspiration. And also, you know, I I act- program the meals around around the concerts as well.

Yes.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yes, you hit the nail right on the spot because um first, I think they correlate. Great musicians are great personalities, great friends, and they enjoy music, they enjoy eating together, and drinking together. So, this is a idyllic space and, you know, the surroundings are not too bad as well. And um we're lucky throughout the years we have many common friends now and and we kind of um you know, many musicians love to come back to the Incontri festival, such as Emmanuel Pahud, Daishin Kashimoto. I mean, many come back from year to year, they they beg to come back. And so, and there's so much repertoire. And, and it's interesting how Alessio loves to incorporate uh new faces, new people with, you know, older friends of ours and, and it's quite interesting. And for us to to be in that environment and to to have camaraderie and good food and and wonderful music is just inspiring, and we look forward to it every summer.

And at the very beginning of the festival, way before I was involved, Antonio Lysy, the cellist, uh is in Los Angeles now, um he founded the festival at La Foce. And that was the whole idea—musicians, friends would come, stay together one or two weeks, and then present a program. And they would come with the whole family, and so the kids growing up together. You know, since then, the festival has expanded quite a bit, and, you know, there's audience flying in uh just to come and hear the concerts, for example, and there's amazing musicians. Uh but that spirit is still there, you know? That we already after 5 years, the kids are growing up together, and our Mila wants once is looking forward to see what what, yeah, I don't know, what Daishin's kids is coming up and what he's doing, uh what she's doing. Um I mean, it it's quite quite quite special. And I'm convinced, I mean, what drives me is that I know you can get the same musicians in the same repertoire in a different place and they will sound different. Um and that's the connection of the music of these international renowned musicians with with the place itself. And and that's essential.

Exactly.

Yes, absolutely.

Wow. That's a powerful question. You want to go first?

Sure. Yeah, I think we all re-evaluate re-evaluate re-evaluated our balances in life. So, uh we have a young child, daughter, you know, she's uh 6. And and so family time has been at the center of everything, you know? I used to be gone um 10 months out of the year. Now Now I've been home every single day. And and so there are amazing things correlated to that and then amazing challenges as well. So, um after whenever things will resume in a in a way that was similar to um pre-pandemic, um what's my choice, you know? Do I have to be on the road that long or can I structure it differently or can I um the the business has changed in that uh there was a necessity and there still is of producing um things um virtually. Now, how is that going to be incorporated? It's not going to go away, you know, once the vaccine vaccines are rolled out. That's something that as a festival, for example, as a small festival with a small budget, we are having to face now. Even if you get people there, there they're still going to be a huge audience that's been exposed to what we produced last year digitally, that's expecting that as well. I know. So So there is that balance uh and finding a happy medium um in which within which both can coexist and and really inspiring what one another rather than cancel one another. Uh so there's a relationship between digital, virtual versus in-person, there's a relationship between touring and family time. Uh and so hopefully, we can all find a solution, and it has to um be different for each one of us, I think.

Not that far.

Thank you so much, likewise. We're big big fans. And and I hope to do this in person very soon.

I try, I try. Of course.

Cooking for the family.

I've been I've been practicing cooking every single day during this. So, hopefully I got better.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you, Michael.