Recital reveals ageless spirit of revered piano duo

Ary Hermawan ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 05/08/2008 11:04 AM  |  Lifestyle

Latifah Kodijat Marzoeki and Charlotte Panggabean, the celebrated pianists who have performed together for more than four decades, played once again at the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta (GKJ) playhouse.

Latifah, born in Rengat, Riau province, in 1928, and Charlotte, born in Amsterdam in 1930, are indisputably in the vanguard of piano duets in the country. They perform classical pieces written for four hands.

They seem almost fated to share a stage, often being introduced as "a unique combination of similarity and difference -- Latifah was born and raised in Indonesia, her father is Indonesian and her mother is Dutch; while Charlotte was born and raised in Dutch, her father is Dutch and her mother is Indonesian".

A Night with French Music was the title of their performance last Wednesday at the playhouse.

Despite their apparent frailty, Latifah, now almost 80, and Charlotte, going on 78, showed astounding virtuosity and vivacity as they did justice to the works of French eccentric composers Francois Poulenc, Germaine Tailleferre, Emanuel Chabrier and Erik Satie.

The recital opened with Francois Thome's Gavotte & Musette. This piece, light and joyful -- but not typically French compared to Poulenc and Satie -- was played by the duo as a fitting preamble to entering the realm of French classical music.

They played eight repertoires in the recital, and four of them Poulenc's. He was a member of The Six, a group of modern French composers who rebelled against their predecessors such as Claude Debussy, Vincent D'Indy and Cesar Fanck.

Three of his pieces -- Capriccio, which tells of the moments following a masquerade party; Elegie, a song of longing and submission; and Sonate pour deux pianos -- were chosen for the first part of the recital.

Latifah and Charlotte showed tremendous passion in playing Sonate, which boasts not only admirable virtuosity and the typically French joyful-but-sometimes-eerie melodies, but also a musical relationship to our local sound, gamelan orchestra. The repertoire was loud and fast in the hands of the performers.

The chemistry that connects the pair is perhaps the strength of their performances. Their fingers danced and chatted on the piano keyboards, creating enchanting harmonies and sometimes, since it was French, sudden disharmonies, much to the delight of the audience.

Latifah played most of the treble notes and impressed the audience as she flawlessly handled faster melodies, while Charlotte played the bass and middle notes in which she displayed her mastery in playing long intervals.

"How do they manage to concentrate?" a stunned and bewildered audience member asked her friend after the concert.

Latifah and Charlotte met in Holland when they were studying at the Conservatory of the Muziek Lyceum in Amsterdam in the early 1950s.

The first meeting, however, did not see the two orang indo (an Indonesian term for children of mixed marriage) collaborating yet. They had found love in Amsterdam -- Latifah met Benito Kodijat, while Charlotte met Gustav Panggabean.

In 1958, the two young pianists, already married, met again in Bandung after which Latifah began to visit Charlotte regularly to practice together.

In the years that followed, they found not only true friendship, but also the idea to promote classical music, especially piano pieces written for four hands. In 1964, they had their first piano recital titled Bunga Rampai (An Anthology) at Gedung Lyceum Dago in Bandung, West Java.

For almost half a century, the duo have played piano and taught many students, including Meutia Hatta, the daughter of founding father Mohammad Hatta, and now state minister for women's empowerment.

At the end of the recital, Meutia presented the pair with a basket of flowers onstage.

"Playing classical music is like medicine to us. It gives us strength to keep on living. As long as we are alive, we want to give more to other people with our music," Charlotte said.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.