AboutThe Israeli pianist Yaara Tal and her German partner Andreas Groethuysen formed their duo in 1985. At the time both were pursuing solo careers, and discovered almost by chance that their artistic capabilities complemented each other extraordinarily well whenever they played together as a duo. After the decision to continue their career as a duo, the artists dedicated themselves mainly to highly demanding compositions for four hands, and found that they received a unanimously enthusiastic response from the public and the press. Yaara Tal studied with Asriel Beresowski, Ilona Vincze and Arie Vardi at the Music Academy in Tel Aviv. After winning a number of first prizes and achieving international success, she moved to Germany to complete her studies, participating in the master classes of Hugo Steurer, Ludwig Hoffmann and Peter Feuchtwanger. Andreas Groethuysen began his piano studies with Ludwig Hoffmann in Munich, having decided he had to take up a musical career after exploring other subject areas. He continued his studies with Peter Feuchtwanger in London and was successful in a number of international competitions. Since Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen formed their duo, their search for piano duet compositions of a high standard has unearthed an unexpected wealth of virtuoso music, most of it being completely unknown. Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen have taken it upon themselves to establish a place for this extensive repertoire - which differs as a genre considerably from the more well-known four-hand music repertoire for domestic use or for shows and entertainments - in the concert hall. After their first CD with works by Johann Nepomuk Hummel the two pianists signed an exclusive contract with Sony Classical, where they have made recordings of piano music for four hands by Carl Czerny (SK 45936), Max Reger (SK 47671), Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn (SK 48494), Dvorák, Rachmaninov and Anton Rubinstein (SK 47199), Louis-Théodore Gouvy (SK 53110), Brahms (SK 53285) and Schubert (S2K 58955). Four of their recordings have won the German Record Critics' Prize (Czerny, Reger, Mendelssohn and Gouvy). In 1996 a complete edition of Schubert's piano compositions for four-hands (7 CDs) was recorded and released in 1997 In their recitals, Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen present works for one piano only, although for large concert performances with orchestra they obviously perform repertoire for two pianos. January 31 1997 marked the 200th anniversary of Franz Schubert's birthday where Tal & Groethuysen performed two concerts. The first took place in Vienna in the morning and the second in the evening, in Cologne.
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Andreas Groethuysen
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