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Duo Scarbó, Two Pianists, Shone at Hyde

"If you missed Duo Scarbó's piano performance of the works of Ravel and Gershwin, you may have missed the most engaging concert of the summer. These two exquisite performers were as mesmerizing to watch as they were captivating to hear. (...) Before the last note faded, the audience sprang to a standing ovation."

—Maureen Dye, The Chronicle, New York

Duo Scarbó: Four Handed Sensibility

" 'Impressive' can be the adjective used to qualify Wednesday night's performance of the Duo Scarbó, especially with issues such as coordination at the piano, both technically and musically. And if this were to seem like little, they offered one of the most attractive programs of the recently premiered Contemporary Music Series. .... It was a solemn interpretation, almost mystical, of an awe-inspiring piece of music [Crumb's Celestial Mechanics]... After numerous applause, the duo delighted us with the Habanera by Xavier Montsalvatge as an encore, in a meticulous interpretation and with great rhythmic feeling, which added a sweet aftertaste to the evening."

—Alejandro Delgado, Málaga Hoy, Spain

The Elegance of Hammel and Sánchez

"Extremely synchronized and equipped with a pianism that could easily transform from vigorous to extremely delicate, Hammel and Sánchez have also astonished for their extraordinary confidence which allowed them to execute the entire program by memory, a rare occurrence in piano duo performance. Also displaying an extremely careful use of pedal, the two pianists have convinced in every piece, bringing out of the well-attended audience an ever-increasing applause."

—L'Arena, Verona, Italy

"The child-like playful air [of Poulenc's Concerto in D Minor for 2 Pianos], percussive and full of beautiful melodies, floated to the surface and shone splendidly in the interpretation of both, the pianists and the conductor. The artists Hammel and Sánchez displayed their talents individually and collectively. They came across stupendously synchronized and balanced, and yet they also showed evidence of their respective temperaments. The audience received their performance appreciatively. They reciprocated the unending applause with a very appropriate encore: the two-piano version of Manuel de Falla's 'Fire Dance' from his ballet El amor brujo. Bravi!"

—Jorge E. Martínez Solá, El Nuevo Día , Puerto Rico

"...Then came the pianists Elena Hammel and Laura Sánchez (Duo Scarbó), who impressed in Martinu's Double Concerto (1943)."

—J.L. Pérez de Arteaga, La Razón, Spain

Sembrich's Four Hand Sell-Out

"The Marcella Sembrich Opera Museum in Bolton Landing was filled beyond capacity for the four hands piano concert by the international artists Elena Hammel and Laura Sánchez. ..overflow audience members spent the entire evening on the pathway outside the pink stucco museum listening in through the windows. This was likely the event of the classical chamber music year—extremely interesting music played by stellar musicians. The program itself was top shelf, offering beautiful and engaging readings, flawlessly executed, of some rather difficult stuff. It left me feeling, in a word, exhilarated. In five words: lucky to have been there."

—Cathy Dede, The Chronicle, New York

Fireworks for Four Hands

A special concert with the pianists Laura Sánchez y Elena Hammel

"In a packed Brahms Hall of the [Detmold] Conservatory of Music the two of them ignited fireworks for four hands, for which the audience thanked them over and over again with thundering applause... These two pianists melted into one homogenous sound through an exquisitely cultivated and inspiringly vivacious performance that turned a single grand piano into a whole orchestra or brought two grand pianos into fascinating unity, sporting at times a sunny seriousness or an intense pathos with an engaging and somewhat elf-like give and take between two worlds, a fascinating unit and an exciting dialogue between two opposing poles. (...) Each of these composers unfolded in their own tonal language in a powerful and colorful kaleidoscope of subtly crafted dances. These two pianists, who have traveled the world over and have won — both individually and together - a large number of awards, elevated these difficult passages to mere attributes of lively music, absent of any self-indulgent virtuoso vanities. Needless to say that such a concert, where the audience's hands and feet never ceased applauding, required a topping-off with an encore. Laura Sánchez and Elena Hammel had two aural tidbits in store: an inimitable George Gershwin and - how else could it be after such fireworks - the Dance of Fire by Manuel de Falla."

—Lippische Landes-Zeitung, Germany

Re-validation of the Dúo Hammel — Sánchez

"Their recital validated once again the impression of pure mastery that was the most outstanding aspect of their previous presentation. The audience assembled...had before it a true team, without cracks or fissures, "a marriage of true minds"... For the breathtaking conceptual and interpretative synchronicity which manifests itself in the executions of the Dúo Hammel — Sánchez does not leave any room for doubt about the congeniality that exists between its members."

—Víctor Castro Gómez, El Vocero, Puerto Rico

From the Domestic Piano to Virtuosity in Concert

"The performers evoked the various orchestral sonorities in a diaphanous interpretation where the different planes were never clumped together (something altogether too frequent in this type of repertoire). We had previously heard a careful and velvety interpretation of Schubert's Fantasy in F minor... Not only in the rhythmic nerve of [Milhaud] but also in the never -cold transparency with which they offered the complex pages of the Rachmaninov, Dúo Hammel - Sánchez displayed its outstanding synchronicity and technique with a repertoire of great brilliance. We can only hope that we will hear them again..."

—Javier Sayas, El Peródico de Aragón, Spain

Dúo Hammel-Sánchez Shines

"... honestly brilliant execution of music for two pianos and one piano four hands. The degree of virtuosity that was witnessed at the packed René Marqués Hall in the Performing Arts Center can only be the product of a cultivated discipline, not only technical but in life as well. Continuous melodic lines, musical thoughts that, though fragmented between the two pianos, resound absolutely organically to the ear, calibration of energy, of dramatic tension, unity of concept and interpretation, Dúo Hammel - Sánchez has triumphed magnificently over the challenges presented in the repertoire offered."

—Víctor Castro Gómez, El Vocero, Puerto Rico

A Masterful Musical Duo

"The execution and passion evinced by these two performers and the technique and control of their hands and arms were little short of brilliant."

—Peggy Ann Bliss, The San Juan Star, Puerto Rico