'LIGHT SHINING THROUGH'

YAARA TAL in conversation with BILL NEWMAN

I should have written Pianists, but following their Berlin Festival appearance in music by Koechlin, Yaara's partner Andreas Groethuysen was called away the following day to head the Munich Piano Competition Jury, an important yearly event. She stayed a further day for a rather special second-half concert -- a wide selection of those delectable, slightly crazy pieces by Satie. For further comments, see my write-up.

I never let an opportunity slip by without talking to these wonderful artists who have been performing together for 15 years; they are always delighting audiences in popular and unusual, neglected repertoire. I cannot think of any other keyboard duos past or present so consistently involved in perfecting their style of approach in accordance with the composer's desires. Live or on CD, a whole new world opens up. Recordings of Hummel -- Koch-International, and for Sony Classics -- Czerny, Reger, Felix Mendelssohn and Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Gouvy, Brahms, Schubert, Dvorák, Rachmaninov, Anton Rubinstein, and Charles Koechlin to come; after a few bars you think, this is how the music should sound. But I had better get on with it. I was at her hotel -- for once I was on time -- and had the irrepressible Yaara all to myself. Ah, but she had a plane to catch!

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