Here we have a very different sort of piano recital. 'The 12 Pianists" group developed from a four person membership in 1996 to the present 12 members, stimulated by the leader Christoph Sischka's arrangement of Lavignak's Galop-March for 12 pianists on one piano. This earned the group an entry in the Guinness Book of Records in 2002 (and one of the pieces on this disc involves drinking Guinness itself, but that is another story).

The group's members include professors and lecturers at Conservatories and Academies of Music in Freiberg, Riga, Karlsruhe and Trossingen as well as award-winning musicians of renowned International competitions. Immediately when one hears them playing, it is obvious that their form of music-making is not a gimmick, as they are highly talented and devoted to applying their creativity to the service of the music.


The 12 Pianists' playing itself is of a very high concert level, all the more astonishing because effects like very fast long scales may involve the athleticism of several adjoining players passing the notes down the line of players smoothly. Choreographic efforts are necessary so that 24 arms can put themselves and their 120 fingers in the right places, be they keys or strings or frame tapping. This must be a spectacular sight for an audience.The precision of the Pianist's staging would be interesting to see, and perhaps Ars Produktion might consider including a DVD if they produce another of the group's albums.

This recording was made at Kurhaus in a small town in the Black Forest, Bad Herrenalb, which is host to the International Piano Duet Festival. Not a live performance capture, but sessions were held two days before The 12 Pianist's public recital (Bolero Night), and one session afterwards.

The programme is based on folk-orientated dance music, mostly from around the end of the C19th, from many composers whose names are no longer in circulation. But they would have been well-known in their time, and student pianists and amateur pianists would frequently have enjoyed their dance contributions. The "quality" pieces in this programme come from Ravel (Bolero - 4 pianos, 8 hands), Khatachurian (Sabre Dance from 'Gayaneh' - 2 pianos, 8 hands), Liszt (Grand Galop Chromatique - 2 pianos, 8 hands) and Saint Saëns (The Lion's March and Finale from the Carnival of the Animals - 2 pianos, 12 hands). These are given ingenious arrangements mostly by members of the ensemble. A splendid Bolero, for example, starts with a single player on one piano sounding the basic rhythm, and the second enters with the tune, and so on, building a thrilling pianistic climax. Werner Genult's arrangement wisely prunes off some of the many repetitions of the tune, and adds interesting ornaments and broken chords.

Thomas Turek (b. 1973) decorated his 'Thermal-Tango' by scoring hand-slapping on the piano frame, plucking and stroking of bare strings and long, fast glissandi. The result is intriguingly spooky but very entertaining. Alexander Yossifov (b. 1940) was even more ingenious with his Danza archaiqua, which has two pianos and 24 hands but only four of them press the keys, while the other two are engaged in knocking, strumming and picking the insides of both pianos, with hand clapping and stomping; some textures that you will never hear elsewhere.

Tonmeister Schumacher gives us a well-balanced and focussed sound-stage in stereo and multichannel, each of which have great clarity, thanks to the Yamaha CFIIS grand pianos which have fast mechanisms and fewer overtones than the usual Steinways. In multichannel, you can spot the exact location of every clap from Yossifov's track, and frankly this disc could well be used to test your Hi-Fi system with its range of novel sounds.

Small, elongated monochrome booklet photos really don't tell us very much about the movement of performers as promised, but there is plenty of information about the ensemble and the music played (German and English).

A unique pianistic event which enthusiasts of piano music should investigate for themselves. 13 tracks-worth of time away from the day to day deeply serious musicianship of piano players gives you an hour or so's break offering stunning co-ordination and skill from an International group of brave and visionary exponents. What more could you want?

Copyright © 2014 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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