Pianists of great sensitivity, Bax and Chung are equally matched in virtuosity and temperament -- a fact that became abundantly clear in the first movement's playful cadenza. Although the intensity of the music-making seldom registered above room temperature, the pair compensated with a scintillating encore, an excerpt from Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals.

Two-piano recitals aren't an everyday occurrence around here. And few such programs anywhere are as lively as the one presented Wednesday evening by Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung at Southern Methodist University's Caruth Auditorium.
Mr. Bax and Ms. Chung, who are married, have both studied with Joaquín Achúcarro at SMU. First prize winner in the 2000 Leeds Competition, Mr. Bax is now on the SMU piano faculty. Ms. Chung, a Montreal native also trained at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School , has several competition prizes to her credit, too.
One of the best things you can say about a piano duo is "they play as one," and these two certainly did. They opened with quite a splash, the late Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski's two-piano Variations on a Theme of Paganini. Based on the same violin Caprice as Rachmaninoff's famous Rhapsody, Lutoslawski's 1941 work puts the theme through snazzy glitters, sassy jabs and dreamy glidings, with more than a little deviltry along the way.
Next up was Stravinsky's original piano four-hands version of the complete Petrushka (as opposed to the three movements he later arranged for a single player). Given the brilliant colors of the familiar orchestral score, you might expect a piano version to be a pale reflection. But sometimes inner voices, rhythmic complexities and gently battling tonalities actually emerge more clearly on the piano.
After intermission came two two-piano arrangements of tangos by Argentinian composer Astor Piazzola, and a third was offered as an encore. The razzle-dazzle finale of Darius Milhaud's Scaramouche was the second encore.
All this was played with great panache, the Petrushka scenes vividly characterized. Ms. Chung got most of the treble parts, and she set them glinting.

One of the best things you can say about a piano duo is "they play as one," and these two certainly did. They opened with quite a splash, the late Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski's two-piano Variations on a Theme of Paganini. Based on the same violin Caprice as Rachmaninoff's famous Rhapsody, Lutoslawski's 1941 work puts the theme through snazzy glitters, sassy jabs and dreamy glidings, with more than a little deviltry along the way.

Next up was Stravinsky's original piano four-hands version of the complete Petrushka (as opposed to the three movements he later arranged for a single player). Given the brilliant colors of the familiar orchestral score, you might expect a piano version to be a pale reflection. But sometimes inner voices, rhythmic complexities and gently battling tonalities actually emerge more clearly on the piano.
After intermission came two two-piano arrangements of tangos by Argentinian composer Astor Piazzola, and a third was offered as an encore. The razzle-dazzle finale of Darius Milhaud's Scaramouche was the second encore.

All this was played with great panache, the Petrushka scenes vividly characterized. Ms. Chung got most of the treble parts, and she set them glinting.

“Alexandra Coku, Natascha Petrinsky and Elena Zhidkova were the strongest Rhinemaidens I have heard; their singing was absolutely secure but also beautifully phrased.”

"Chung and Bax play memorably as one"

Their rapport, colouration, simultaneous chording and transparancy of textures is remarkable, and the whole thing has a joyous feeling of delight in youthful virtuosity, with Ligeti's never far absent sense of humour often in evidence. They begin with the three innovative and mature pieces for duo-pianos from the mid-'70s, then do wonders with the much earlier Bartokian five pieces for piano duet, showing a crisp articulation which should bring them into the recital for that humble domestic medium, which is now coming back to favour largely because of the recognition of the marvellous quality of Schubert's contribution to the genre.

I love this pianist's clear yet buttery approach to this music- it makes these formidable pieces seem both inviting and irresistible, as well as intellectually and technically rigorous. The wonderful early four-hands pieces are played with appropriate spirit. The later two-piano pieces (1976) are more familiar Ligeti […] Chung and Bax give involved performances in nicely detailed sound.

“Tenor José Luis Duval sang these numbers with firm control of the slithering vocal lines.”

One has to say that whoever put these players together knew what he or she was doing.

as a team, they are excellent!

Lucille Chung with Alessio Bax an admirable partner, responds with both vigour and refinement to these brilliantly conceived pieces, with excellent character and presence, and the recording offers a splendidly lifelike introduction to the music.

Here was perhaps the purely musical highlight of the evening: a huge dynamic range, unity of concertin, a carefully paced climb to the climax of the Romance and powerful swirls of sound in the Tarantella united in a lucid and deeply moving musical experience.