Pianists: Theme Team

After the fourth encore the one on the left steps to the microphone: “No doubt,” he says, “some of you out there are wondering which is which ” They are indeed, for Duo-Pianists Ferrante Teicher look as much alike as they Play. In their patent leather shoes electric red jackets, black-rimmed spectacles and matching pompadour toupees they are the Tweedle twins of the concert stage.

Audiences have not always cared which was Dee and which was Dum For twelve lean years Arthur Ferrante Louis Teicher, now both 39 orbited the concert circuit, one of a near dozen duo-piano teams whose specialty had as much box office appeal as a concerto for glockenspiel. There was one compensation, as Teicher recalls “You always had somebody to talk to.”

Liberacean Lace. Their fortunes changed abruptly in 1960 when they recorded the theme music from the movie The Apartment. Their 20th album, and the first to back their piano with full orchestral accompaniment, the recording sold 1,100,000 copies, six times all their previous record sales combined. Ferrante and Teicher followed with recordings of every movie theme they could put their hands on They proved so successful that the pianists decided to drop their classical repertory, add a few comedy routines, and change their billing from duo-pianists to a two-man show.” In the four years since, they have sold 14 million records establishing themselves as far and away the most popular piano duo ever Branching out into new fields, they have just finished writing and playing the film score for United Artists’ upcoming A Rage to Live. This week they begin a two-month tour of the U.S. and Canada At a recent concert in Manhattan’s Philharmonic Hall, Ferrante and Teicher skipped through a medley of their movie-theme hits: Moon River Days of Wine and Roses, The Exodus Song, Tonight. Their dual attack usually has one pianist picking out the melody while the other stitches on Liberacean lace tinselly trills, end-to-end keyboard riplings, couched in a lush orchestration of breezy, cascading strings and trickling woodwinds.

Wifely Support. The result is a kind of middlebrow Muzak played by a pair of highly skilled technicians. In novelty numbers they reach into the vitals of their pianos to strum, pluck and pound on the strings. In addition, they keep strips of Masonite, cardboard wedges, and sandpaper stashed in their pianos,’ apply them to the strings to conjure up weird effects resembling gongs, castanets, drums, xylophone and harpsichord. Ferrante and Teicher have been playing in unison ever since they were sixyear-old prodigies studying together at Manhattan’s Juilliard School of Music After twelve years and repeated prodding from teachers, they decided to become professional duo-pianists. In 1948 they bought an old delivery truck loaded on their Steinways and hit the road. They played in gymnasiums, churches, cafeterias, ballparks, even a boxing ring. In the first dozen years they went through three trucks, twelve motors, and too few square meals “If our wives hadn’t worked,” says Teicher “we never could have survived.”

They say that they have no regrets about deserting the classics. Still, when they are on the road, they like to get to the concert hall a little early. Then in an empty auditorium, Ferrante and Teicher play Bach and Brahms as if they were hungry again.