Piano duos are the skating couples of classical music: the formation stands for perfect musical harmony down to the smallest fingertip, and it is no coincidence that many of the most famous duos are siblings, sometimes even identical twins. The spirited sisters Mona and Rica Bard are obviously not identical twins - one is blond, the other dark - but their somnambulistic ensemble playing has already led many a reviewer to praise them.
Mona and Rica Bard began playing together at the piano in their childhood home and have been playing together as a piano duo ever since, four-handed on both one and two pianos. They studied with the duo Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl and also received important artistic impulses from the duo Yaara Tal/Andreas Groethuysen as well as from Katia Labèque, Leonard Hokanson and Alfons Kontarsky. National and international prizes and awards, concert engagements in Europe, Asia and the USA, renowned festival venues and invitations from renowned orchestras as well as numerous radio and television recordings prove that the duo knows how to combine technical brilliance and thrilling temperament with sensitive artistic expression.
Their musical partners include the percussionists of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chinese percussionist Li Biao, KrausFrink Percussion, the jazz pianist and composer Uri Caine, as well as Ariane Matiakh and Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the conductor's podium. Under the title PAS DE DEUX, Mona & Rica Bard's debut CD of French music for piano duo was released in 2012 to acclaim from the international press (audite). In 2015 the duo's second album followed with the concertos for two pianos and orchestra by Poulenc and Françaix, together with the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz conducted by Ariane Matiakh (Capriccio), and in 2020 a CD with works for 2 pianos by Max Bruch was released, which was recorded during a Max Bruch anniversary concert and was released on the label Capriccio in co-production with Deutschlandfunk Kultur to the day of the 100th anniversary of the composer's death on October 02, 2020.
Photo © Uwe Arens
