He then decided to resume his career as a concert pianist, commencing with the Piano Concerto in A minor by Edvard Grieg.
At a small-scale performance of Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold in 1893, Pugno and Claude Debussy provided an accompaniment on two pianos.
He had a brilliant career, travelling throughout Europe and to the United States, where American composer Marion Bauer acted as guide and translator for Pugno and his family.
The duo also gave the premiere performances of violin sonatas by Albéric Magnard and Louis Vierne.
He spent his summers at his home in Gargenville where he taught and entertained, often playing concertos and works for two pianos with Saint-Saëns and the young Nadia Boulanger.
[citation needed] In 1903 he recorded pieces by George Frideric Handel, Domenico Scarlatti and Chopin and one of his own compositions, an Impromptu Valse.
2, in which he plays the piece noticeably slower than the norm, a practice bequeathed to him by his teacher Georges Mathias, himself a student of Chopin.