The Israeli pianist Yaara Tal and her German partner Andreas Groethuysen have formed one of the world’s leading piano duos for over four decades, performing in the most prestigious concert venues around the globe. Just to name a few: Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Berlin, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Cologne Philharmonie, Teatro alla Scala Milan, Philharmonie Munich, Radio France, Frick Collection New York, Forbidden City Concert Hall Beijing, La Roque d’Anthéron Piano Festival, Ruhr Piano Festival, Salzburg Festival, Musikverein Vienna, Tonhalle Zurich, Lucerne Festival, Kissinger Sommer, Schwetzingen SWR Festival, and the Leipzig Bach Festival.
A major component of Tal & Groethuysen’s international success is their long-standing collaboration with the record label SONY CLASSICAL, which has produced around 40 albums over the past 30 years—many of which have won prestigious awards. These include eleven Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Cannes Classical Award, five ECHO Klassik awards, the OPUS Klassik in 2021, the Schwabinger Kunstpreis, and the Prix Caecilia. In 2022, the duo was also awarded the esteemed annual prize of the Ruhr Piano Festival.
To mark their 40th anniversary, a biography of the duo written by Michaela Fridrich, entitled “Seiltänze mit zwanzig Fingern” (Tightrope Walking with Twenty Fingers), was published by Edition Text + Kritik. The biography traces the artistic career of Tal & Groethuysen and highlights the musical independence and close partnership of the two musicians, whose collaboration is regarded as the epitome of consummate duo artistry.
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From the outset, Tal & Groethuysen have made it their mission to not only interpret the core piano duo repertoire (Schubert, Mozart, Brahms, Dvořák, etc.), but also to shed light on unjustly forgotten works. In the orchestral realm, they have championed double concertos by Jan Ladislaus Dussek, Anton Eberl, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dinu Lipatti, and Sándor Veress, as well as Carl Czerny’s spectacular concerto for piano four hands and orchestra.
The duo’s creativity is perhaps best expressed in their piano recitals. In recent years, these have included the Goldberg Variations in the version for two pianos by Joseph Rheinberger and Max Reger, excerpts from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung in the astonishing transcription by Alfred Pringsheim (Thomas Mann’s father-in-law), and Reinhard Febel’s Opus Magnum, 18 Studies on J.S. Bach’s Art of Fugue.
Tal & Groethuysen have also long devoted themselves to the French repertoire, performing works by Claude Debussy, Reynaldo Hahn, Théodore Gouvy, Camille Saint-Saëns, and most recently Théophil Ysaÿe, including a premiere of a rediscovered composer: Marguerite Mélan-Guéroult. Their album Avec esprit was released in March 2023.
In recent years, they have also increasingly integrated chamber music into their duo work, performing large symphonic works such as Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’, Mendelssohn’s ‘Italian’ and Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’, as well as overtures by Juan Crisostomo de Arriga, Emilie Mayer, Ludwig van Beethoven and W.A. Mozart, performed in arrangements for piano four hands with violin and cello.
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Season 2026/27
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