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Two Pianists Perform the Rare and Renowned

When John Milbauer was about six years old, he listened, for the first time, to some record albums he had chosen at the library. One of the pieces he heard was J.S. Bach's Concerto in C Major for Two Keyboards. Milbauer had forgotten the piece until this summer, when colleague Bob Bowman asked Milbauer to perform the piece with him at the Oct. 26 keyboard concert. Milbauer was delighted by the serendipity of rediscovering the piece. Milbauer, concert pianist and music department faculty member, will perform the concerto with Bowman on Oct. 26, 7:30 p.m. in Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall.

Milbauer and Bowman also will each perform a solo work. Bowman will play Mozart's Sonata in A Minor; Milbauer has chosen Fantasy After J.S. Bach, a piece by Ferruccio Busoni that has likely never been performed in Chico. Busoni wrote the piece in 1907, shortly after his father died. "He takes snippets from three of Bach's chorale preludes, and weaves them together into a loose fantasy," Milbauer said. "It is a beautiful piece -- dark, complicated, and occasionally majestic -- not played very often, but considered one of his strongest works."

Along with the Bach concerto, the two pianists will perform Rachmaninoff's renowned Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos, which Milbauer describes as the "blockbuster, the war horse, the standard virtuoso piece for two pianos," that every pianist wants to play at some point.

The concert is free and open to the public. See "The Art of Accompaniment."

Lisa Kirk