Pianorama II

Pianorama is a recurring festival at Konserthuset Stockholm where the piano plays the main role in all concerts. Many of Sweden’s leading pianists will appear, as well as some of Sweden’s most prominent percussionists and string musicians. This year’s festival has a special focus on music for two pianos and four hands.

“Double the piano means piano with extra everything! The challenge is to play so that it sounds like two pianos together, yet still like a dialogue between two discernible voices,” says initiator and artistic director Roland Pöntinen.

Mozart only composed a few pieces for two pianos, but here, Ivetta Irkha and Maria Rostotsky will perform his Sonata in D Major. This is music in the gallant style of 25-year-old Mozart. Borisova-Ollas’ evocative Djurgården Tales spotlights the entire potential of the double piano: rhythmic outbursts, rolling arpeggios and phenomenal virtuosity. Rachmaninoff’s Suite for Two Pianos, Op. 17, is magnificent and technically challenging.