The Detroit Disc
Sunday March 4, 2001

Yuki and Tomoko Mack
Metro Piano Duo
“American Mosaic”
Musicians Showcase,
Westchester County, NY

Michign based sisters Yuki and Tomoko Mack have won several international competitions since teaming up as a piano duo in 1994, but “American Mosaic” makes an even more immediate case for the group. Whether playing two pianos or one piano four-hand, the Macks perform with a unity of phrasing, character and articulation that would be associated with any top chamber ensemble.

The repertoire spans populist Americana by Bernstein (“West Side Story”), Copland (“Rodeo”), and Gershwin (“Porgy and Bess”), with accessible but more abstract music by Victor Babin Ned Rorem, and John Corigliano.

Rorem’s Six Variations is particularly noteworthy: 12 minutes of highly concentrated music that is full of his attractively brittle melodicism, pithy wit and emotional contrast. The clarity of the playing matches the lucidity of the writing. And the Macks dispatch Corigliano’s outgoing and virtuosic “Gazebo Dances” with lively flair.

By Mark Stryker, Free Press Music Critic