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Four Hands Play as One(Austria Kultur - Vol 7/No2/ Mar - April/1997)Every now and then, a pair of brothers or sisters comes along and demonstrates that there is some secret language shared between consanguine souls, an eloquence that needs no words. In the sparsely populated world of piano duos, such twosomes have included the legendary Kontarsky brothers, the Labèque sisters, the Pekinel twins, and the Paratore brothers. In fact, among all of the leading duos, a surprising majority is composed of siblings. The Austrian brothers Eduard and Johannes Kutrowatz have long joined the = ranks of young musicians destined for an international career. = Enthralled with the brothers' debut at the Feldkirch Schubertiade, = journalist Anna Mika wrote in the Neue Vorarlberger Tageszeitung, "The = Kutrowatz brothers combine all of the virtues of four-hand piano = playing, and it is a pleasure to see the high degree of coordination in = their movements. They are capable of building up raw power, and yet are sensitive and empathetic in their craft." It is to Schubert above all that the two pianists owe their innate understanding of contrasts - from the most tender gentleness to dynamic outbursts of intensity. Such contrasts are even more pronounced in four-hand playing, and Eduard and Johannes Kutrowatz have a flair for creating what the Wiener Zeitung referred to as "incredible tension" in Schubert's music, an ability to deliberately "allow the music to approach the verge of catastrophe." This year, as the music world celebrates the 200th birthday of Franz Schubert, the Kutrowatz piano duo will delight audiences with more dynamic contrasts than ever. The brothers share the opinion that to really know Schubert is to be familiar with the works he wrote for four hands, from famous pieces such as "Lebensstürme", the Fantasie in F Minor, and the Rondo in A Major to the Laendlers, marches, and polonaises, the dances that in their captivating simplicity are so incomparably moving. All of these works can be heard on the Kutrowatz brothers' CD Franz Schubert: Klavierwerke zu 4 Händen, which was issued under the "Organum" label. In announcing the Kutrowatz duo's performance at the Vienna Klangbogen festival, the Austrian paper Die Presse lauded the brothers for their uncanny rapport with each other, for their consummate mastery of technical skills, and for their "noble equilibrium." This equilibrium happens to be one of the most essential features of the two artists' approach to chamber music. The most violent fortissimo outbursts and the most delicate pianissimo cantilenas are always accompanied by balanced sonority and the highest precision in coordination. Eduard and Johannes Kutrowatz come from Burgenland and first studied music at the Josef Haydn Conservatory in Eisenstadt. They later attended the Vienna Academy of Music, where their teacher Renate Kramer-Preisenhammer encouraged them to focus on pieces originally written for two pianos or four hands. The greatest impetus for their artistic work as a piano duo came from the master course they took in Freiburg under Karl Ulrich Schnabel - coincidentally the only course the piano duo specialist had ever given in Europe - and from the Lockenhaus chamber music festival. In 1986, they won their first international competition and from then on carefully and with immense determination pursued their international career. In a recent interview, Eduard Kutrowatz explained, "With our music, with the music we play, we are attempting to seize the opportunity to break through the barriers of verbal communication and in so doing participate in creating a more humanitarian and peaceful world." The duo's most important appearances for 1997 include performances in New York on the occasion of the International Schubert Symposium in April, at the Schubertiade in Feldkirch in May, a tour in Japan in May and June, and performances at the piano festival in Ruhr and the Vienna Musikverein. See the Calendar of Events section for concert dates in New York. Sandra de Havenon |
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