14 hands make light work
- Source: Global Times
- [11:17 July 09 2010]
- Comments
The Swiss-based group Piano Seven. Photo: Courtesy of Huang Xiao
By Hu Bei
In 1987, when Francois Lindemann first experimented with seven pianists playing together, he could not have imagined the international success of the Swiss-based group Piano Seven which now has played more than 150 concerts in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa.
"The volume and power of seven pianos together is not the reason this succeeds. It is the acoustic power of the sound," said Lindemann, a pianist himself and the ensemble's founder.
Tomorrow will be the third time the group has played in Shanghai, and it will perform at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.
Over the past 23 years, Piano Seven has presented original music created by the pianists themselves. For this performance, 13 of their 14 pieces will be their own compositions: the other piece being Peachtree Blossom, a Chinese folk song.
"The music will be our own Latin style, which has flavors of South American mu-sic like the samba, chorinho and tango," Lindemann said.
Lindemann's Tango Negro, is a type of tango with the major elements of the traditional Argentinean tango meshing perfectly together as a video of dancers screens behind the players.
"Most of our creations feature Latin styles fused with jazz and blues. Of course, we also have classical music and jazz which contains a large variety of influences from different cultures around the world," Lindemann said.
"However jazz is not the exact word for Piano Seven's music. I prefer to think of it as music for seven pianos from the 20th and 21st century."
In Piano Seven, each member has composed between one and three pieces for the concert.
"Some of us take great care to keep the personality of the piece by writing special parts where we can express ourselves and by writing music to fit our own skills," Lindemann said.
He told the Global Times that the most difficult thing is not composition but how to arrange the ensemble bearing in mind each player's particular style.
Like an orchestra, the musicians do not play in unison constantly but leave time and space for individual duets, trios and quartets.
But this style presents more than a few problems. "We are an orchestra without a conductor. We have no percussion instruments to use as a metronome, so we just have to follow the sounds," Lindemann said.
"It is different for every concert and the instruments we use and even the audience can affect the music we make. We try to build a dynamic musical and a visual show to take the audiences on a magical journey."
For their Shanghai performance, Piano Seven will welcome two new musicians to the ensemble: Nicolas Levon Maret, a percussionist from the Caribbean and Stéphanie Décaillet, a violinist who is also a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne.
Visual artists Daniel Wyss and Bastien Genoux will bring a special touch to the performance. "The stage design uses multi-colored lights from the ceiling and the floor accentuating the mood of the pieces and providing a superb atmosphere," Lindemann said.
Date: Tomorrow, 7:30 pm
Venue: Shanghai Oriental Art Center
上海东方艺术中心
Address: 425 Dingxiang Road 丁香路425号
Tickets: 80 to 480 yuan
Call 6854-1234 for details
