Music and More: Film Magic for Piano Duo Four-Hands
On Friday, January 23, 2026, the Bulgarian Musical Society in Washington presented an original and deeply moving event at the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria — "Music and More: Film Magic for Piano Duo Four-Hands" with Ivo Kalchev and Tanya Tachkova. For the audience, this performance was stunning! It is truly possible to play from memory and by feeling. But to see how four hands position themselves next to each other in absolute simultaneity, to achieve harmony in every decisive strike on the keys or that "sharpness" that emphasizes the culmination of the dramatic effect, is something incredible in its impact.
Ivo Kalchev, known as a brilliant piano artist with "impressive technique," an excellent educator and dedicated teacher of students, professor of piano, head of the Music Department and piano division at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in combination with Tanya Tachkova, who is highly acclaimed by critics for her solo performances and concerts in the United States and around the world with a doctorate in musical arts from Stony Brook University and a teacher in New York, the two build with trust and creative experience a new dramaturgical concept, moreover realized in an unusually short time — to dedicate themselves to the magic of film music.
Their repertoire included a rich palette of popular film titles such as "The Great Dictator" (1940) by Charlie Chaplin — a genius in the art of film, from which we heard "Hungarian Dance No. 2 in D minor" and "Hungarian Dance No. 5 in F-sharp minor" by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Music from the film "Schindler's List" (1993) by composer John Williams, who also wrote the music for "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982). We heard the same theme in the film "True Lies" (1994) as well.
"Libertango" also resonated — the most famous work by Astor Piazzolla, which was used by director Roman Polanski in the film "Frantic" (1988), where Harrison Ford dances to Piazzolla's music, as well as in British director Sally Potter's film "The Tango Lesson" (1997).
The audience held its breath when the popular tango, created in 1935 by singer and composer Carlos Gardel, was performed in Martin Brest's film "Scent of a Woman" starring Al Pacino, which brought him the Oscar award.
We recalled "Titanic" — James Cameron's hit film, where the song "My Heart Will Go On" is the main soundtrack with Celtic motifs, emphasizing the tragic love story.
Or our familiar animated characters Tom and Jerry with the performance of "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" by Franz Liszt in "The Cat Concerto" (1947).
I really wanted to hear the first music entirely composed by a famous musician for the film "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" by singer Bob Dylan, but instead I learned something more from the film "The Legend of 1900," whose title in Italian literally sounds like "The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean" (1998), whose music was composed by the great Ennio Morricone, who created legendary compositions for cinema and lived to the age of 91.
According to him, in every art, the heart is the best advisor and good taste will always be fashionable!
Thanks to the wonderful piano duo Ivo Kalchev and Tanya Tachkova, we were drawn into a musical fresco of melodies and stories, delighted by such a familiar cinematic experience. Images and characters from many beloved films came alive in us with an amazing thematic unity and a very original musical interpretation.
It was as if the entire concert was some kind of artistic game, consciously evoked by the piano duo, to make us feel satisfied with this most genuine and living music.
© Nelly Tsoneva, Krassi Genov
Washington DC, January 2026