Geister Duo - Debussy/Stravinsky: Piano À 4 Mains - Import CD

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Geister Duo

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The up-and-coming piano duo Geister DuoThe French piano duo Geister Duo has recorded works by Debussy and Stravinsky from the early 20th century with perfect technique and phenomenally colorful tone. They are an up-and-coming duo that has captured the world's attention after winning the piano duo category of the 2021 Munich International Competition. Debussy's Six Epigraphs was originally written in 1890 for flute, celesta, and harp as incidental music to accompany the recitation of Debussy's friend Pierre Louis's poem collection "The Songs of Bilitis," but was never performed. It was completed in 1914 as a piano piece. The work is filled with Debussy's longing for Greece, and the world of each poem is skillfully depicted. Ravel was present at the premiere of "Prelude to the Pastoral Afternoon". Although Debussy himself had arranged the Pastorale for two pianos, Ravel arranged the work for four hands in 1910 (Debussy may have known about it and performed it). The work is proof that Ravel, a wizard of orchestral music, was also very talented in expressing orchestral sounds on the piano. The Geister Duo plays like an orchestra. The world of beauty depicted from a single piano is breathtaking. ≪The "Petrushka" is a four-handed version by the composer himself. Stravinsky originally conceived of "Petrushka" as a piano concerto, and in 1911, he made it into an orchestral ballet music for the Ballets Russes, in which the piano also plays an active role, but he also created a four-hand piano version in parallel. Since Stovinsky usually used the piano when composing, this two-piano version may be a version that brings Stravinsky's original ideas more vividly to life rather than a piano reduction of the orchestral version. The Geister Duo, while carefully studying the sound of the orchestral version, play with astonishing precision, energetic rhythms and intensity, and an unbelievably rich sound from the piano. 2nd Prize in the Duet Section of the 2019 International Schubert Competition, 1st Prize in the International Four-Handed Piano Competition in Monaco in 2021, 1st Prize in the Piano Duo Section of the 2021 International Munich Competition (and 5 special awards). Both were born in Paris and studied at the Conservatoire de Region de Paris. On the train to the academy in the south of France, their tastes in pianists and composers matched so perfectly that they hit it off and decided to form a piano duo. They both studied piano performance at the Hans Eisler Conservatory in Weillard and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris (Salmont), respectively. As a duo, they studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, Master of Chamber Music with Claire Désert, and have appeared at numerous music festivals and concerts, including the 2020 La Folle Journée Festival in Nantes, where they performed all of Beethoven's four-hand works. King International