Duo Crommelynck

Belgian pianist Patrick Crommelynck (born 1947) co-founded Duo Crommelynck with his Tokyo-born wife Taeko Kuwata (born 1945) in the 1970s. They had a splendid turn as a piano duo, carving out a solid reputation during a time when competition among piano duos was tough in Europe, given the popularity of such high-profile acts as the Pekinels and the Labèques. The Duo Crommelynck recorded many CDs, all for the Swiss Claves label, and their three-disc set of the four-hand works of Schubert won a Grand Prix du Disque from the Academie du Charles Cros. The senseless double suicide that claimed the pair in July 1994 was a tragedy that has few, if any, parallels in the history of classical music.