Duplex Piano – The Piano with Two Manuals

• Classical Music

Around 1920, the composer Emánuel Moór had the vision of building the piano of the future. His duplex piano with two manuals was born out of the spirit of the late Romantic period and offers even more tonal colours and a greater richness of sound. On an ordinary piano, one touch of the keys causes a hammer to strike the string. With the duplex piano, two hammers can be coupled: one keystroke then produces two tones simultaneously. This doubling of the tones leads to an unimagined fullness of sound in the forte, and to a magical brilliance of sound in the piano. The two manuals allow for differentiated layers of sound.

In this concert, the audience will hear a contemporary work performed for the first time on the duplex piano. The music of the German-American composer Ursula Mamlok (1923-2016) is sensual and colourful. Her work »Rotations« for cello and piano is given a very special intensity by the duplex piano. This work and a piano piece by Emanuel Moór are embedded in the piano quartets of the great masters Dvoák and Brahms. And so tradition and modernity are combined in this concert.

Franziska Hölscher plays the violin. She performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, e.g. at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Bozar Brussels, the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Rudolfinum Prague. The principal violist of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Jan Larsen, can be heard on the viola. David Stromberg, who rediscovered the duplex piano, will play the cello. He endeavours to provide the audience with new, fascinating listening experiences, including as curator of the concerts with the duplex piano. The pianist Florian Uhlig plays the duplex piano. He was honoured with the »Opus Klassik« and the »Deutscher Schallplattenpreis« for his complete recording of Robert Schumann’s piano works.

PERFORMERS

Franziska Hölscher violin

Jan Larsen viola

David Stromberg violoncello

Florian Uhlig Duplex Piano

PROGRAM

Antonín Dvoák
Klavierquartett D-Dur op. 23

Emánuel Moór
Esquissee op. 82/2

Ursula Mamlok
Rotations

- Interval -

Johannes Brahms
Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26