During the 19th century, skillful keyboardists from around the world would come together to match up with one another. They would have a one-to-one duel against each other to determine who is more skillful. The most popular example back then would have to be that of Thalberg and Liszt. However, in this 20th century, German pianists Andreas Kern and Paul Cibis have rose to the challenge. These two have been showcasing their piano battle as well as delivering both an amazing entertainment-factor to their audiences.
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For the first time, the pair will be taking their novel concert-concept to the United States. They will be performing their piano battle in Washington, at the Embassy of Austria,on January 18th. Although both pianists are classically trained and accomplished, they are not big fans of the traditional competition arena.
For Andreas, he had been pursuing different methods of presenting piano pieces on stage. In fact, he had been doing so even before the idea of having a piano battle. He always felt that connecting with the audience on an emotional level, from where he is on stage, forms a fundamental part of his performance. He felt that this was more significant rather than just a formal printed program, which the audience could refer to. “Even the way those programs are usually constructed requires some familiarity with the musical material – or at least with the names dropped within the biographies of the artists– which creates a rather condescending effect,” he explained.
The first time when Andreas actually performed together with Paul was at the Hong Kong City Music Festival in 2009. They grew closer to one another when they were both given the same time slot. This made them discuss and brainstorm on mutual programming as well as the best way in which they could display to the audience, if there was a need to. Therefore, instead of performing the traditional four-hand recital, they improvised. They interchanged their classical repertoire along with pop and jazz. This proved to be successful among their audience and resulted in the birth of the Piano Battle. Since then, they had several sold out shows in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In 2010, they were showcased in Germany at the Piano City Berlin Festival too.
Perhaps the best part of it all is that the audience can participant to determine the winner of each battle round. They can do this by holding either the black or white cards that are handed at the entrance, which corresponds to the suit of the performer. To learn more about Andreas and Paul Piano Battle, do refer here.
In order to have a piano battle with someone, you have to equip yourself with proper piano skills first. You can do this at Awesome Piano, which offers Piano Lessons in Singapore. Andreas and Paul had to begin from the very basic before they rose to fame. This goes the same for everyone else too!