Two instruments at once

Many years ago, I witnessed something extraordinary.

I was at a concert of a good friend of mine, a marvelous singer from Buenos Aires called Maertín Alvarado. We were in the lovely town of Tampere in Finland.

His accompanist that night was someone who I already knew by name, but not personally. A multifaceted Finnish musician called Mikko Helenius.

Mikko studied bandoneon in Paris but had a background as an organist and a pianist. He possesses an extraordinary talent, nothing short of genius.

But what I saw then blew my mind. While he was accompanying Martín´s expressive tenor voice, there was an instrumental interlude in which while he was playing the piano, he picked up his bandoneon with his right hand and started playing both instruments, simultaneously.

I had never seen something like that before, two instruments of such complexity being played together but just one persona, in what I thought would be something physically impossible to do.

But no, it was possible.

Mikko was playing his heart out, on two instruments. As if he had two brains. And two hearts.

Many years later, I gave it a try. After all, I´m a professional concert pianist and bandoneonist. The story about the circumstances in which this took place I´ll leave for a separate post, but let´s just say that it´s already been about 8 or 9 years since the first time I tried it, and since then I´ve been perfecting my skills at playing both instruments together.

What I’m about to show you might seem easier than it looks, but believe me, it´s absolutely hard to pull off. It took me many takes to get it done (more than 30 I believe).

Click here to watch me play Bach´s two-part invention in d minor on both instruments, piano and bandoneon, at the same time.

Enjoy, and have a great day.

Claudio.