The event was sold out for weeks – a stunning piano evening at the Music hall of the Speinshart Monastery (Musiksaal des Klosters Speinshart) continued the summer series of Guest Concerts of the Festival Young Artist Bayreuth. As proven by the previous five concerts: Klosterdorf is still a towering cultural lighthouse in the region.
Review written by Robert Dotzauer
Speinshart. On Thursday our audience was treated to an remarkable guest performance of Enikő and Noémi Görög, two deeply-connected sisters from Serbia, obsessed with their instrument of choice. The concert was set against the background of the baroque Musiksaal, with the Piano Duo taking the audience on a journey through Europe and the New World. Thomas Englberger, head of the International Meeting place (Internationale Begegnungsstätte), promised a display of sonic fireworks, with pieces ranging from the Ural Mountains to America, and it can safely be stated, he did not promise too much. Under the title ‘Duo Piano’, the audience enjoyed a road trip through a free and versatile world of different nations and traditions. Especially in these restless times, it is important to hit the ‘pause’ button and, with the help of music, search for our common roots, find the signs of peace and friendship in the world. With the motto ‘Four hands playing the keys of time’ (‘Vierhändig auf den Flügeln der Zeit’) the pianists endorsed our festival’s main message and used their music to build bridges and connect people.
Playing with astonishing technicality
The Görög Sisters achieved their goal through music. When combining a colorful works of famous composers from ranging from the Ural Mountains to the other side of the Great Pond with their masterful four-hand skills and astounding precision, then the evening is sure to turn into a celebration of piano music at its best. Their perfect cooperation let the Duo display their versatility on the selected works, their play was convincing and effective.
The sisters portray tremendous emotional explosive force, specifically in the six moments in Sergey Rachmaninoff’s ‘Morceaux, Op.11, Movement 4 and 5’, with countless individual tempers and mood swings all the way to majestic colorful dynamics. Musical impressions coming straight from Rachmaninoff’s heart were deftly transmitted by the artists’ four hands, dispersed throughout the baroque Musiksaal. The concert started with the charming lyricism of ‘Lebensstürme’ by Franz Schubert, earning the Piano Duo endless applause. Shortly before the break, the pianists managed to enchant their audience with the ‘Sonatina’ by György Ligeti.
The Görög Sisters continued the second half of their concert in the same persuasive manner. By then the whole concert hall was encompassed in a fiery atmosphere, the public resembled a fair. The audience celebrated the artists with boundless fun when they set into the ‘Slavonic Dance in e minor’ and resumed the funfair feeling with Johannes Brahms’ ‘Hungarian Dance No. 6’, turning the evening into a rhythmic Csárdás-fest.
A racing revolution of melodies
The Piano Duo exhibited their perfect unity with ‘Souvenirs, Op. 28’, a work by Samuel Barber, the late-Romantic composer from the New World and the Serbian folk dance ‘Kolo’, a display of sounds from their Homeland. The Görög Sisters rewarded the raging applause of the audience with two enthusiastic encores.
Leave a Reply