Concert | Piano solitaire
This series of concerts spans a broad historical and artistic spectrum, showcasing major piano works regarded as milestones of a radical and monumental artistic ambition in terms of compositional technique, performance practice, timbre, and duration: from Johann Sebastian Bach’s two volumes of ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier’ as a historical reference point—where a new “rationalist” tuning system, various compositional techniques, and formal aspects were systematically developed—to La Monte Young’s legendary and antithetical ‘The Well-Tuned Piano’, featuring free explorations of a limited pitch material in pure, modal tuning, performed in durations of up to six and a half hours.
Between these poles lies the 3.5-hour ‘Opus Clavicembalisticum’ by the English-Indian composer Kaikhosru Sorabji from 1929/30 – performed in full for only the second time in Germany since 1983 – a work of extreme compositional density and technical difficulty in the tradition of Busoni; John Cage’s groundbreaking cycle ‘Sonatas & Interludes’ for prepared piano from the late 1940s; James Tenney’s major work ‘Bridge’ (1984) for four players at two pianos in microtonal tuning; the austere ‘De namen der Goden’ (1990–92) by the Dutch composer Cornelis de Bondt, for two pianos and specially designed live electronics, given its German premiere; and finally, Stephen Scott’s ethereal pieces for string piano, brought to life inside the grand piano by eleven players using hard and soft small bows.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Das Wohltemperierte Klavier II (ca. 1722 – 1744)
Geoffrey Madge – piano