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!

Bellini's Legacy

My cocktail blog has suffered of late (mostly due to my indecision regarding the forthcoming "Rite of Spring" cocktail), but there's nothing like the romance of Valentine's Day to rekindle one's inspiration. Today, I present not one, not two, but THREE cocktail recipes, all inspired by the simple and magnificent "Bellini." 

A Bellini cocktail is the perfect combination of white peach puree and Prosecco. Most classical music aficionados instantly assume the cocktail is associated with Vincenzo Bellini, an Italian composer known for his impossibly gorgeous (and endless) melodic lines. (The drink, sadly, has nothing to do with the composer—it's inspired, rather, by a 15th century artist—but I still like to think that the two are indelibly linked.) As such, and after MUCH taste-testing, I propose three new cocktails inspired by early-nineteenth century bel canto opera:

Donezzeti

In theory it's a stretch, but in taste, it's perfect:

• 1 part pineapple purée (or juice, if you're in a hurry)
• 2 to 3 parts Prosecco (or sparkling wine)

Pour the pineapple purée into a chilled champagne flute, then gently (GEN-T-LY!) add the sparkling wine. If the "gentle" addition of sparkling wine results in a lava flow of froth, try adding the sparkling wine with a baster, inserted below the surface of purée. Drink flamboyantly while careening about your living room to the "Mad Scene" from Lucia di Lammermoor.

The Elixir of Love

Um. Yes. Since an "elixir" (especially the love variety) ought to be complicated to produce, this drink adds a fussy, but delicious step to the "Donizetti" recipe listed above:

• 2-4 sage leaves
• 1.5 ounces pineapple purée/juice
• 4 ounces Prosecco/sparkling wine

Lightly muddle the sage leaves with the pineapple purée/juice. (Vigorous muddling can make a bitter mess of sage leaves, so try to stay calm. Experimentation is key.) Remove the bruised leaves. Pour the infused pineapple mixture into a chilled champagne flute, then gently (GEN-T-LY!) add the sparkling wine. Share with a lover while listening/crying to "Una furtiva lagrime" from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.

Rossini

I know, I know, for years (centuries, actually) the bubbly music of Rossini has been compared to champagne, but I'm going to go out on a limb with the following:

• 3/4 ounce limoncello
• 1.5 ounces vodka
• 4.5 ounces Pompelmo(a grapefruit-flavored variety of San Pellegrino)

Mix together in a collins glass with plenty of ice.

With the inclusion of limoncello (from Sorrento) and San Pellegrino (from northeast of Milan), the drink is undeniably Italian and "bubbly." BUT, there's something to this drink that's even perkier, more joyous, and less pretentious than even champagne. Opera's rom-com master, Rossini, now has a new drink to celebrate his glittering carouses of the stage. :-)

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! 

Rite: The Sacrifice. Episode 10 and beyond...

After months of planning, recording, filming, and editing, we proudly present to you the 10th and final episode of our "Rite of Spring" project:

We revealed a few wild production notes in our recent Gramophone blog, and Greg wrote about the 135-year-old organ that we sacrificially destroyed here.

More pertinent, perhaps, is what comes next! The film wasn't originally designed to be split into installments, but we also knew our YouTube subscribers might be overwhelmed by a 35-minute-long extravaganza. As such, we decided to divide the work into 10 episodes, which we've posted on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

But now we're working toward our ultimate vision: a seamless, engrossing, and dramatic film — "The Rite of Spring: A Musical Odyssey." We strung the episodes together and re-edited everything; we've re-shot scenes, restructured concepts, and revised and fine-tuned the editing. We are super excited to show you, our fans, the entire film, but we have other ambitions to tackle first. We're currently applying to a handful of carefully selected film festivals, and later we plan to create a DVD/blu-ray version of the film, complete with directors commentary and a behind-the-scenes documentary. Stay tuned for more developments... ;-)

Gramophone Blog

We outsourced our blogging duties to Gramophone Magazine! Don't miss our provocative essay in which we discuss lost toenails, Lady Gaga, and the challenge of serving classical music effectively via YouTube.