Description

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Track Record

• First Performance: Hanoi (November 27, 2025) by Hoang Ho Khanh Van and the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, cond. Honna Tetsuji, for the 4th International Music Festival in Vietnam - 2025

Program Notes

In classical ballet, a pas de deux (French, literally ‘step of two’) is known as a dance duet in which two dancers, usually a man and a woman, perform ballet steps together. It traditionally begins with an Entrée (introduction) and includes an Adagio (meaning ‘slow’) in which both characters come together in harmony. This inspired me to transform the traditional roles in a concerto (the soloist – the “leader” – versus the orchestra – the “accompaniment”) into true dance partners who, over the course of the piece, grow into a more harmonious collaboration. It begins with an energetic Entrée by the orchestra, followed by a contrasting Adagio by the soloist. Both musical ideas gradually grow closer together in increasing harmony, until they finally become one.

At the same time, you can listen to this piece as the negation of the above as well. In fact, Pas de deux can also be translated from French as “not two”. This explains a.o. why there are not two soloists, but one of them is an orchestra. It echoes the famous painting “This is not a pipe” by the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte, in which he paints a pipe and denies it by adding these words next to it. This ambiguity is also omnipresent within the piece and makes Pas-de-deux to what it really is, a personal tribute to my and his hometown of Brussels, often called the capital of surrealism.

Enjoy listening.

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Specifications

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Performance materials

Download the pas-de-deux Score

Download the pas-de-deux-red Piano Reduction
Download the pas-de-deux-solo Solo Part