The Mozart Anthology

For those of you who delight in physical, hold-it-in-your-hands sheet music, we’re so pleased to announce “The Mozart Anthology” is available now on Amazon. This new 74-page score compilation features five of our favorite Mozart arrangements, fantasies, and showpieces for piano duo (all freshly edited, revised, and in some cases rewritten).

You may already be familiar with these arrangements from our Steinway Label albums, When Words Fade and An Amadeus Affair, but it has taken us nearly a decade to find time between tours to commit the works to paper. They range widely in mood and style (from structurally literal to irreverently off-the-wall), but each arrangement contains every bit of the mischief, vivacity, and joy that make Mozart’s music so irresistible. 🤗 

Having performed some of these works more than 10 years, we’ve tested these arrangements extensively. We’ve rewritten some of the most unplayable passages, threw in a few fingerings for the barely playable ones, and fixed an embarrassing compositional flaw or two. Not to mention, this edition is much easier to read than our earlier micro-print scores (so sorry!). 😅🙌

We’re delighted to once again be celebrating the music of Mozart. Mix up a refreshing Amadeus Affair cocktail and join us in toasting one of the greatest geniuses in history. Prost!

The Amadeus Affair

Mozart’s no spring chicken — he’s turning 260 this month! — but his work retains a youthful freshness everyone can enjoy (and envy…). I’ve concocted a youthful cocktail to swig alongside the Big Bad Wolfie’s most effervescent music. (We’ll drown our sorrows in the the D-minor Piano Concerto and the Requiem another day…) 

The drink is several years and many tipsy evenings in the making. In fact, we originally intended to pair the drink recipe with the release of our album, An Amadeus Affair. But just as playing Mozart’s music takes years of refinement, so does crafting the perfect tipple to compliment his sonic whirl of intrigue, scandal, exhilaration, and mischief. 

I drew inspiration from the following quotes while rustling up the ingredients for “The Amadeus Affair”:

“Mozart is happiness before it has gotten defined.”
— Arthur Miller

Happiness = effervescence & sparkle = sugar & soda water!
 

“Does it not seem as if Mozart’s works become fresher and fresher the oftener we hear them?”
— Robert Schumann

A perky and fresh spring day = tarragon, with its licorice-like, peppery scent. (Besides, is it just me, or does tarragon scream, “MOZART!?")
 

“When you play Mozart, it’s so clean, it’s so simple. It’s the body naked.”
— Gustavo Dudamel

Cleanliness = lemon; see the article “24 things you can clean with a lemon” for evidence.
 

“An astonishing number of kisses are flying about! I see a whole crowd of them. Ha! Ha! I have just caught three — they are delicious… I kiss you millions of times.”
— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to his wife Constanza

In all forms of art, romance and love are often symbolized by flowers. Gin is the most floral spirit, and elderflower is the most intoxicating of scents… yum!

To tie it all together, I added two drops of absinthe to account for Mozart’s token dash of the unexpected, his latent wild side. (Speaking of which, click here for an NSFW link showcasing the true extent of Mozart’s wild side.)

Below, please find what I believe to be the most pleasing, balanced, and Mozartian combination of the ingredients.

THE AMADEUS AFFAIR

In a cocktail shaker, start with:

• 1-2 sprigs tarragon

• 3/4 teaspoon granulated sugar

Muddle, then add:

• 1.5 oz gin

• 1 ⅓ oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur

• ⅔ oz fresh lemon juice (I use Meyer lemons)

• 2 drops absinthe

Add ice to the cocktail shaker, shake, and strain into a tall glass filled halfway with ice. Then add:

• 2 ounces soda water

Stir. Once complete, sit back and enjoy "The Amadeus Affair" with this sparkling track from our album An Amadeus Affair. :-)

An Amadeus Affair

BIG news—it's finally here! We're thrilled to announce that our brand new all-Mozart album, An Amadeus Affair, is officially available! Our sonic love letter to the work of Wolfgang is already garnering rave reviews:

Way too hot to be background music, this duo commands and demands your attention. (Midwest Record)

The quicksilver spirit of Mozart shines in a new way in this disc of music for two pianos and four hands … Anderson & Roe make it a marvel, each note just right … [It] has to be heard to be believed ... Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe play pretty much as one and they sound as if they are enjoying it, too. (Buffalo News)

The wit and playfulness of Mozart are the primary elements on display here … [An Amadeus Affair] is polished to a fine sheen and delivered with panache. (Infodad)

Purchase your brand-spanking new copy of An Amadeus Affair (available in both CD and digital format) from ArkivMusic, Amazon, or iTunes. 

In commemoration of the new album, we're planning to release a new Mozart music video as well ... stay tuned!

New Album Announcement (and its first review!)

An Amadeus Affair

Here's a quick blurb about the album:

Mozart's fascination with romance and Anderson & Roe's infatuation with Mozart come together in a sonic whirl of intrigue, scandal, exhilaration and mischief. Featuring Mozart's own Sonata for Two Pianos and scintillating Mozart arrangements by his not-so-secret admirers, this kaleidoscopic collection of works reveals the composer's mastery of opera, concerto, and the sonata. The Anderson & Roe Piano Duo, hailed as "the most dynamic duo of their generation" (San Francisco Classical Voice), brings Mozart's musical dialogue to life in a flirtatious interplay of four hands at one and two pianos. 

AND, the album already has its first review, and it's a stellar, five-star review at that:

Throughout An Amadeus Affair, Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe bring Mozart’s greatness to a new generation while escalating the role of the classical piano duo to a new level of virtuosity and sophistication. [Anderson & Roe] excel at a level unheard in recent years by similar concert pianists of their generation.

- examiner.com

Technically, the album's official release is February 25, but you can preorder it from Arkiv or iTunes! 

NEW Mozart Album in the works!

We just recorded our next album, and we couldn't be more excited. All Mozart and all awe-inspiring music! (More repertoire details to come.)

Playing piano can be difficult enough, but doing it in 95-degree heat?! The air conditioners were were too noisy in SUNY Purchase's Performing Arts Center, so we shut them down and did our best to endure. Thankfully Mozart's music kept our spirits up. 

Look for the album in early 2014!

Incidentally: our dressing rooms were the same ones used in the intense movie "Black Swan." We tried to stay away as much as possible. :-)