Piano Duo Project

Mari and Momo Kodama grew up in Germany and France playing piano duo repertoire at home and performed together as a duo for the first time at the Salle Gaveau in Paris performing the entire concert from memory in 1989. With a repertoire that ranges from CPE Bach to contemporary music, their program encourages listeners to listen to the music from different angles.

Each year they take time out of their busy solo careers to work together and have commissioned and premiered many new works. Commissions have included Jean Pascal Beinthus’ ‘He got Rythm’ at the Waldbuehne Berlin with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Beinthus’ ‘Cinema Rhapsody’ with the Osaka Century Orchestra in Osaka, Japan and in Monte Carlo with Monte Carlo Philharmonic; Rodolphe Bruneau Boulmier’s ‘El Torcal’ for two pianos at the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ in Amsterdam; and Ichiro Nodaira’s ‘Echo dans le Bois’ for two pianos in Berkeley, California.

In 2022, they performed a program around America, by Barber, John Adams, Samuel Adams and Steve Reich at La Scala in Paris and in 2023 Mari and Momo Kodama will perform a program of Etvos, Bach, Kurtag, Mozart and Reger in Muziekgebow in Amsterdam.

Their recordings include a highly acclaimed release with Martinu’s Double Concerto with Lawrence Foster and the Marseille Philharmonic (Pentatone 2018) as well as Tchaikovsky’s Ballet Music transcribed by Arenski, Debussy and Rachmaninoff (Pentatone, 2018). In 2023, they will record the Mozart’s Double and Triple Concerto as well as Poulenc’s Double Concerto with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Kent Nagano, followed by an album of music and transcriptions of Saint-Saens.

Program 1

Barber
Souvenirs
Brunau Boulmier
El Torcal
John Adams
 Hallelujah Junction

Stravinski
 Rite of Spring

Program 2

Bach
Kunst der Fuge No.1
Kandinski
Selected Poems
Schoenberg/Webern
5 Orchesterstucke

Stravinski
Rite of Spring
Bach
Kunst der Fuge No 3

Program 3

Etvos
Cosmos
Bach/Kurtag
Chorals
Mozart
Sonata

Reger
Variations on a theme of Mozart

Program 4

Tchaikovsky/ Rachmaninoff
Sleeping Beauty
Tchaikovsky/ Debussy
3 Dances from Swan Lake
Tchaikovsky/Langer
from Swan Lake

Tchaikovsky/Arenski
from Nutcracker

Program 5

Ravel
Ma mere l’oye
Debussy
En blanc et noir (or Mozart Sonata) 

Messiaen
Visions de l’Amen

Repertoire

Adams
Hallelujah Junction
CPE Bach
Sonata
Barber
Souvenirs
Bizet
Jeux d’enfants
Britten
Rondo a al Burleska
Bruneau Boulmier
El Torcal
Chopin
Rondo
Debussy
En blanc et Noir, Petite Suite
Dvorak
Dances Slaves
Etvoes
Cosmos
Faure
Dolly
Messiaen
Visions de l’Amen
Mozart
Sonatas
Rachmaninoff
Suite No.2 Op.17
Ravel
Ma Mere l’Oye
Reger
Variations and Fugue on a theme of Mozart Op. 132a
St Saens
Carnival of the Animals
Schoenberg/Webern
5 Orchesterstucke
Schumann
Kinderball
Stravinski
Rite of Spring
Tchaikovsky/
Arenski

from Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky/
Debussy

3 Dances
Tchaikovsky/
Rachmaninoff

Sleeping Beauty

Concerto

Bach
Double Concerto
Beinthus
Cinema Rhapsody
Martinu
Double Concerto
Mozart
Double Concerto
Poulenc
Double Concerto
Takemitsu
Quotation of Dream
Miyoshi
Concerto for 4 hands