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A marriage of four hands
The artistic partnership of complementary pianists
By Susan Van Dongen
Princeton Packet Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 11, 2000
After 27 years — warts and all — husband-and-wife pianists Misha and Cipa Dichter have learned to make beautiful music together.
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Sometimes "self-help" books can be so…helpful. One in particular brought harmony to the lives of husband-and-wife pianists Misha and Cipa Dichter.
It was linguist Deborah Tannen's book You Just Don't Understand that helped Ms. Dichter to better comprehend her husband's critiques during their volatile practice sessions. The groundbreaking book illustrates how the two sexes communicate like alien species, which resonated for Ms. Dichter.
She says her husband was all business during their practice sessions and would at times level stinging criticisms at her. Then, while she nursed her hurt feelings, he would resume the rehearsal as if nothing had happened.
"I had a tendency to take things very personally," says Ms. Dichter. "To Misha, it's a professional relationship — it has nothing to do with the way we feel about each other. After I read the book, I realized that men can have a rehearsal and be very critical and it's over. Whereas I think a woman would be more hurt by this. The author really understood this."
Looking back, Ms. Dichter says communication conflicts were one of the most difficult aspects about working so closely with her husband.
"But over the years we've figured out how to work through this," she says. And she concedes that most other times her handsome husband can be a prince — like when they find themselves in a city with one good concert grand piano and one that's not so good. "He'll give me the superior piano," she says.
After 27 years — warts and all — they've learned to make beautiful music together. Area music-lovers can hear for themselves when Misha and Cipa Dichter make their debut with the New Jersey Symphony at the 6th Annual Amadeus Festival July 14, at Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, followed by a performance July 15 at New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. The concerts are part of the three-week all-Mozart festival conducted by music director Zdenek Macal.
The Dichters will play the Double Piano Concerto No. 10 in E flat major, K. 365, and the Triple Concerto No. 7 in F major, K. 242, with pianist Peggy DeArmond-Rogers.
The couple began playing together while they were students at New York's Juilliard School of Music in the 1960s. They made their first joint appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in 1972, four years after they married, and one year after the birth of their first child. Mr. Dichter secretly signed his wife up for the concert, thinking that aniticipation of the performance would stem any post-partum depression his wife might experience. Ms. Dichter screamed when she learned of his plans, but decided to go through with the performance anyway.
Fortunately, the program went beautifully and motivated Ms. Dichter to resume her playing more seriously. Although Mr. Dichter is often away from home on solo tours, together the two have been well-received in concerts, nationally and internationally. They have even helped to revive interest in four-handed piano repertoire.
Years of practicing nearly eight hours a day have given the Dichters an intuitive performance style. They used to cue each other with nods, but stopped because it hurt their timing ever so slightly. In Mr. Dichters' words, the couple has become so in-tune with each other that "when the music begins, we might as well be blindfolded." The duo cannot see each other because they are reading from large scores and are separated by two grand pianos.
"Listening carefully is the secret when you're so far away," Ms. Dichter says. "It's a combination of factors: It's a lot of work, a lot of concentration, but it has become intuitive. By now we know what the other is feeling, and we can breathe 12 feet apart, simultaneously."
There are some rare nights when a concert rises almost to a transcendent level, and the Dichters are so connected that the music seems to play itself. "When the concert goes well there's a kind of communication that goes beyond words," Ms. Dichter says. "There's such a level of satisfaction. It's very rewarding personally and very rewarding musically."
Their joint career evolved very naturally. Even the way they met in the choir at Juilliard — standing next to each other — seemed to have a fateful resonance to it. Mr. Dichter noticed the beautiful new music student from Brazil and thought "oh my goodness." Shortly after, he invited her to his apartment to try some four-handed piano playing (wink wink).
The romance has lasted through nearly three decades, two children and countless times apart. However, Ms. Dichter thinks she spends more quality time with her husband than do couples with regular 9-to-5 jobs.
"He's away from home a lot. But when he is home he's there 24 hours a day," she says. "When Misha is away, though, I try to take advantage of living in New York. It's a nice balance."
Even if the self-help books say men and woman don't always see eye to eye, in a relationship and in an artistic partnership, the two sexes often do complement each other, like light and shadow.
"We are very different human beings, with different interests, different styles of practicing, physical differences," Ms. Dichter says. "But we have this amazing thing in common which is what defines our life very much."
Misha and Cipa Dichter will perform at Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, July 14 at 8 p.m. and at Prudential Hall, Newark, July 15 at 8 p.m., with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in its Amadeus Festival. Tickets cost $40, $25 and $15. For information, call the NJSO Ticket Office at 1-800-255-3476, Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
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