| 1 CD |
€ 14.95
|
Preorder |
| Label Antarctica |
UPC 0608917736328 |
Catalogue number AR 063 |
Release date 10 January 2025 |
In 2020, COVID struck. The world came to a standstill. Schools closed, and two pianists fought over the best grand piano in the house... "Hey, what if we became a duo?" Together they won several prestigious competitions, including the Piano Duo Festival Competition in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), the Concours International de Piano de Brest (France), the International Appassionata Competition in Namur (Belgium) and the Concorso pianistico Recondite Armonie in Grosseto (Italy). They also secured second place twice at the Princess Christina Competition in Maastricht (The Netherlands).
The Princess Christina Competition jury stated: "The piano duo Camille and Chloé Beniest surprised the audience and jury with their sparkling performance of a Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz Liszt. The sisters told a captivating musical story through precise timing and a wide range of dynamics. The performance was complete with their delightful stage presence."
The year 2023-2024 was marked by numerous concerts at remarkable venues such as Muziekgebouw Eindhoven and sold-out churches in Tervuren, Amsterdam, Keerbergen, Capelle aan den IJssel, Wassenaar, and The Hague, where they were consistently met with standing ovations. They were also featured on television programs like 'Podium Klassiek' on NPO2, where they performed live, and 'De Piano,' a series on RTL Netherlands.
“We want to tell our audience a story, translating a score into emotions, ranging from deeply sincere to massive climaxes. If people see a cat-and-mouse game in our Liszt, feel the urge to dance when they listen to Piazzolla, or simply immerse themselves completely in our performance, far away from everything, then that makes us very happy."
In 2020, COVID struck. The world came to a standstill. Schools closed, and two pianists fought over the best grand piano in the house... "Hey, what if we became a duo?" Together they won several prestigious competitions, including the Piano Duo Festival Competition in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), the Concours International de Piano de Brest (France), the International Appassionata Competition in Namur (Belgium) and the Concorso pianistico Recondite Armonie in Grosseto (Italy). They also secured second place twice at the Princess Christina Competition in Maastricht (The Netherlands).
The Princess Christina Competition jury stated: "The piano duo Camille and Chloé Beniest surprised the audience and jury with their sparkling performance of a Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz Liszt. The sisters told a captivating musical story through precise timing and a wide range of dynamics. The performance was complete with their delightful stage presence."
The year 2023-2024 was marked by numerous concerts at remarkable venues such as Muziekgebouw Eindhoven and sold-out churches in Tervuren, Amsterdam, Keerbergen, Capelle aan den IJssel, Wassenaar, and The Hague, where they were consistently met with standing ovations. They were also featured on television programs like 'Podium Klassiek' on NPO2, where they performed live, and 'De Piano,' a series on RTL Netherlands.
“We want to tell our audience a story, translating a score into emotions, ranging from deeply sincere to massive climaxes. If people see a cat-and-mouse game in our Liszt, feel the urge to dance when they listen to Piazzolla, or simply immerse themselves completely in our performance, far away from everything, then that makes us very happy."
If you would open any biography of Franz Liszt, you would probably mostly read about his disquiet life as a piano virtuoso, his passionate love life, and the return to his catholic roots at the end of his life. Although all of this might be true, it only scratches the surface of his comprehensive musical personality. Liszt was a pianist, conductor, teacher and organiser, but above all he was a composer of a voluminous, capricious body of work. Even though his piano works formed his core business, he gave rise to the symphonic poem, got rid of the organ's stuffy appearance, and reinvigorated the oratorio. Moreover, with his piano transciptions of Bach's organ works and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, he was an advocate of both old and new music.
Together with his son-in-law Richard Wagner, he was in the forefront of the Romantic movement and anticipated the musical revolutions of the early 20th century with his new composition techniques.
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) is one of most important tango composers of all time. Surprisingly, he spent a large part of his youth in New York. In 1937, Piazzolla returned to his mother country Argentina. There, he started to focus on a career as a classical pianist while in the evening he would play accordion in tango cabaret. From 1955, he worked on his own compositions and wove these two influences together to a new, refreshing sound: the 'tango neuvo'.
At the wedding of crown prince Willem-Alexander and Máxima Zorreguieta, Carl Kraayenhof made a spectacular impression with his performance of Adios Noniño. Piazzolla died in 1992.
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