Nina Schumann & Luis Magalhães - American Intersections (2015)

This recording celebrates the diversity of American 20th c. music, from the neo-Romanticism of Samuel Barber to that most influential of American art music developments, minimalism. Its title, American Intersections, points toward one of the most commented-upon facets of American musical life: the fact that the country is a melting pot of musical cultures, a crossroads of musical traditions, a colorful tapestry of diverse sounds. This recording features composers who all worked against the backdrop of an increasing tendency toward modernism in European art music. Yet, we find the direct influence of Latin-American and Southern American music; we find direct engagement with the blues tradition, with its origins in the West African slave population; we find a continuation of Romanticism alongside a representative of the modern minimalist style that no composer today can ignore. There is music inspired by daily life at hotels, there is music that is overtly political, there is music that engages with the European tradition and forges it into something totally original. Formed in 1999, the Magalhães-Schumann duo, best known as TwoPianists, has gained comparisons to the fabled piano duos of Ashkenazy- Previn and Argerich-Freire (American Record Guide). Since forming, the TwoPianists duo has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe, China and Japan, in addition to numerous performances in their home country of South Africa.