Bach, Kurtag, Busoni - Piano Duet - GrauSchumacher Piano Duo (2007)

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Bach, Kurtag, Busoni - Piano Duet - GrauSchumacher Piano Duo (2007)

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Bach, Kurtág, Busoni - Piano Duet - GrauSchumacher Piano Duo (2007)
Classical | EAC: FLAC+Cue+Log | 1 Cd, Covers | 273 Mb
Label: col legno - Date: 2007

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Bach, Kurtag, Busoni - Piano Duet - GrauSchumacher Piano Duo (2007)

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GrauSchumacher - piano duo

Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher, with their talent for putting together clever and innovative programs, have established themselves as one of the world's top piano duos. Their cooperation at the piano is evidence that the two expert pianists are nothing short of musical soul mates.

The vast breadth of the duo's expressiveness, which moves "between incomparable, never banal craftsmanship and high-spirited, almost tongue-in-cheek entertainment," (neue musikzeitung) has garnered it invitations to various festivals and concert halls, such as the Schwetzinger Festspiele, Berliner Festwochen, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Berliner Philharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Rheingau Musik Festival, and the Piano Festival La Roque d'Anthéron, and has resulted in collaborations with renowned conductors such as Michael Gielen, Lothar Zagrosek, Emanuel Krivine, Heinz Holliger, Bertrand de Billy, Andrej Boreyko, Georges Prêtre, and Zubin Mehta.

The pair's most recent projects have included concerts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bavarian State Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre National de Lyon, as well as performances at the Lucerne Festival, the Wiener Konzerthaus, and the Cité de la Musique in Paris.

Their keen ability to conceive well-considered program concepts is also evident in their recordings. Their album of Stockhausen's Mantra won awards from Le monde de la musique and Diapason. Gramophone selected their CD Visions de l'Amen, featuring works by Messiaen and Schütz/Kurtág, as Editor's Choice. Other CDs they have released over the past several years include Mehrere kurze Walzer (Schubert, Brahms, Grieg, Hindemith, Rihm), Variations and Fugues (Mozart, Reger, Beethoven), Fantasia contrappuntistica (Bach Kurtág, Busoni), Ligeti-Schubert-Ligeti, Grand Duo (Schubert, Schostakowitsch), and La musique creuse le ciel (Wolfgang Rihm). The duo has also made recordings of Luciano Berio's orchestral works and Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps that were highly celebrated by critics.

The duo is set to add two more CDs to its discography in the fall of 2010. The first will be available in early autumn and is entitled Schrift-Um-Schrift, featuring works by Bartók and Rihm. On the heels of this album, the duo will release a second CD in November, entitled Concerti I, in collaboration with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Concerti I will feature concertos for two pianos by Mozart and Bartók, as well as the contrasting Concerto Pathétique by Franz Liszt.

Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher kicked off the 2010/2011 concert season with two important concerts in Berlin. As part of Musikfest Berlin, the duo performed on September 14th with the Bavarian State Orchestra under the direction of Kent Nagano in the Berliner Philharmonie. In October, the duo performed in the inaugural concert of the successful "Mozart Matinee" concert series at the Konzerthaus Berlin with the Konzerthausorchester under the orchestra's chief conductor, Lothar Zagrosek.

Over the course of the 2010/2011 concert season, the GrauSchumacher Piano Duo will perform recitals in concert halls throughout Europe, including at the Musikfest Stuttgart, Konzerthaus Berlin, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Concertgebouw Brugge, and at the Festival Musica in Strasbourg. One of the season's highlights has been the premiere of Kosmos, which took place on September 29th in the Philharmonie in Essen. Commissioned by the duo, video and installation artist Stephan Boehme de Marco created projections that turn the concert hall into a canvas for light and film. Kosmos is intended to create a synesthetic dialogue between visual art and the music of Messiaen, Bartók, Crumb, Kurtág, Eötvös, and Stockhausen. The Austrian premiere of the project will take place in March 2011 at the Salzburger Biennale.

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Bach, Kurtag, Busoni - Piano Duet - GrauSchumacher Piano Duo (2007)

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