''Due pezzi'', literally meaning "two pieces", is a composition for

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, written by the Italian composer

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...

in 1951. It was published by

Suvini Zerboni Suvini Zerboni (ESZ) Italian music publishing house founded in 1907 in Milan, taking its name from the theater society of the same name. The ESZ catalogue included, besides operetta favourites, the best of Italian contemporary music, such composers ...

. The first performance—by pianist

Seymour Lipkin Seymour Lipkin ( May 14, 1927 – November 16, 2015) was an American concert pianist, conductor, and educator. Early life and piano career Lipkin was born in Detroit. At age 11, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Dav ...

and violinist

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (, March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in th ...

, to whom the work is dedicated—took place during the 1952

Tanglewood Music Festival The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Stockbridge and Lenox in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. The festival consists of a series of concerts, including symphonic music, ch ...

. Berio composed these pieces and three other works (''Cinque variazioni'' for piano, ''Chamber Music'' for female voice, clarinet, harp, and cello, and the Variations for chamber orchestra) in response to meeting Luigi Dallapiccola. As the composer says: "with these works I entered the 'melodic' world of Dallapiccola and these same works allowed me to leave it".
.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Due Pezzi (Berio) Compositions by Luciano Berio, Due pezzi 1951 compositions Serial compositions Chamber music compositions