Go East!

Everything began with Paul Hindemith's Waltzes, Op. 6. One morning, befor epracticing, Gülru Ensari and Herbert Schuch sight-read those eight miniatures for four hands, and were astounded to find that they featured a number of similarities with the Brahms Waltzes. Why not intermingle the two cycles? The Turkish-German duo - who are partners in real life, not just at the piano - decided to record the Brahms and Hindemith cycles for this album, along with two Turkish dances by Özkan Manav and the four-hand version of Igor Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'. ...And then it turned out that the 'Hungarian' element often gave us the chance to create smooth transitions between one composer and the other. It ends up sounding incredibly natural to us. The two composers are directing their gaze toward the same horizon: to the East.The duo got their idea of commissioning Özkan Manav to compose a work for them while in Vienna and Frankfurt. Brahms and Hindemith found their inspiration in Hungarian folk tunes. Özkan Manav arranged an American folk dance; in Paris, Stravinsky revisited the folk music of his Russian homeland to write 'Sacre'.