Apollo & Dionysus Danae Dörken & Kiveli Dörken

• Manuel de Falla (1876 - 1946): La Vida Breve:
• 1Falla: La Vida Breve: Spanish Dance No. 1 (Arr. G. Samazeuilh)03:21
• 2Falla: La Vida Breve: Spanish Dance No. 2 (Arr. G. Samazeuilh)04:16
• Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847): Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 38:
• 3Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 38: No. 6, Duetto (Arr. Czerny)02:38
• Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897): Ungarischer Tanz No. 4:
• 4Brahms: Ungarischer Tanz No. 403:18
• Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937): Arr. L. Roques:
• 5Ravel: Arr. L. Roques: Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 214:20
• Reinhold Glière (1875 - 1956): 12 Morceaux, Op. 48:
• 6Glière: 12 Morceaux, Op. 48: No. 10, Fughetta01:15
• Philip Glass (b. 1937): Four Movements for Two Pianos:
• 7Glass: Four Movements for Two Pianos: III.06:28
• Albert Roussel (1869 - 1937): Bacchus et Ariane Suite No. 1, Op. 43:
• 8Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane Suite No. 1, Op. 43: "Dance of Bacchus" (Arr. Wolfgang Renz)05:04
• Reinhold Glière: 12 Morceaux, Op. 48:
• 9Glière: 12 Morceaux, Op. 48: No. 7, Arabesque00:34
• Felix Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 67:
• 10Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 67: No. 2 (Arr. Czerny)02:05
• Johannes Brahms: Ungarischer Tanz No. 5:
• 11Brahms: Ungarischer Tanz No. 502:03
• Mikis Theodorakis (1925 - 2021): Zorba's Dance (Arr. Danae & Kiveli Dörken):
• 12Theodorakis: Zorba's Dance (Arr. Danae & Kiveli Dörken)03:06
• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918): Rêverie (Arr. H. Woollett):
• 13Debussy: Rêverie (Arr. H. Woollett)03:17
• Total Runtime51:45

Info for Apollo & Dionysus

Four hands, 88 keys: Intimate piano psychograms from Olympus

With „Apollo & Dionysus“ the German-Greek sisters Danae and Kiveli Dörken are now, after several successful solo and ensemble recordings, presenting their first joint piano duet album: a studio debut with a sophisticated concept and breathtaking virtuosity.

Two sisters on one instrument. Each an exceptional pianist in her own right with an individual temperament; together, an inseparable single entity with identical musical DNA. Kiveli and Danae Dörken, an "orchestra of four hands" (Thüringische Landeszeitung), have been setting new benchmarks for years as a piano duo, both with their pianistic prowess (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger: "a miracle of ease, charm and feeling") and their exceptional programmes. The two German-Greek sisters also regularly show that they are a born duo in every regard with their quirky and informative podcast "The Sister Trill", joint education projects ("Rhapsody in School" and "Klassik hautnah" or "MoToKey"/Tonali) and the Molyvos International Music Festival, which they founded in 2015 on the island of Lesbos.

Greece, with its culture, is the real inner homeland of the two sisters, born in Wuppertal and Düsseldorf. They began studying piano with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the ages of 11 and seven respectively as the youngest students in the history of the Hochschule Hannover, later continuing to work with Lars Vogt. During the summers of their childhood, their grandmother on Lesbos used to tell them stories of the Olympian gods. "And, like many Greek children, we also visited the Oracle of Delphi," recalls Kiveli, the younger of the two, "where we realised that a good decision always involves both divine characteristics: ratio and emotion."

These two poles of human existence – and particularly of artistic activity – are personified in Greek mythology by two gods: Apollo and Dionysus, sons of Zeus. The former stands for moderation, order and clarity, the latter for irrationality, chaos, amorphousness. And the two Dörken sisters see themselves as embodying this bipolarity: the chaotic, the wild – the Dionysian – aspects belong more to Kiveli's nature, the older sister says, while order and clarity – the Apollonian attributes – are more Danae's thing, according to the younger. Their new album, on which they present a very intimate look at their sisterly and artistic self-image with surprising and original repertoire combinations, thus bears the almost self-referential title of "Apollo & Dionysus".

The core of the new album is Maurice Ravel's Suite No. 2 from "Daphnis et Chloé": "This piece has a particular significance for us because the Dionysian and Apollonian energies in it are equally balanced," Danae says. "Apollo and Dionysus appear in it as advice-giving gods. The story illustrates very well what we want to express with the whole album: that the synthesis of both worldviews, the rational, Apollonian one and the emotional Dionysian one, is important for discovering and developing one's own personality." The two "Songs Without Words" (Lieder ohne Worte) op. 38 No. 6 and op. 67 No. 2 by Mendelssohn, in four-handed arrangements by Carl Czerny, can, however, definitely be assigned to the Apollonian side: since the mid-1800s, in the Jewish Hasidic tradition, the song without words was considered a higher form of art and the expression of spiritual purity. In contrast, the "Hungarian Dances" by Johannes Brahms (Nos. 4 and 5 are recorded here) , which belong to the sisters' core repertoire, allow one to feel a kind of mediation between the two spheres in the way (purported) folk music is translated into a formal classical language: "For us, these two dances, with their tempered exoticism, are a kind of synthesis of the Dionysian and the Apollonian." The duo then becomes virtually ecstatic in Manuel de Falla's "Dos Danzas", and a similar energy, verging on a complete loss of control, is displayed in the popular "Zorba's Dance" by Mikis Theodorakis in an arrangement by the Dörkens themselves: "It is perhaps one of the best-known Greek party songs and thus clearly belongs to Dionysus's realm. For us, this melody and its sirtaki rhythm symbolise absolute joie de vivre, a celebration of the moment." Albert Roussel's "Danse de Bacchus", an excerpt form the "Bacchus et Ariane" Suite No. 2 in the arrangement by Wolfgang Renz, also expresses intoxicated abandonment: "The way the piece is built up shows the effects of alcohol from slight tipsiness to uncontrolled staggering," says Danae. "At one stage, things get very quiet; that perhaps represents the comatose consequences of wine. But then, a motive in the right hand of the first piano flashes a little mischievous or, better, diabolical grin that lets us know that the ecstatic dance will start all over again tomorrow." The two pieces selected from the "12 Morceaux" op. 48 by Reinhold Glière, for their part, once more reflect the opposite aspect of the album's theme: "The Arabesque is a short, passionate dance that carries you along immediately," Danae says. "You feel straight away that you can't escape its unstoppable power. The Fughetta, on the other hand, is a very structured piece; everything has its place; there is a plan. Apollo also stands for coherence, and the way the voices and themes are organised here creates a perfectly constructed musical entity." The same goes for the most modern piece on the CD: the third movement from "Four Movements for Two Pianos" by Philip Glass is based on mathematical order; it makes shifts in that order, along with the resulting new order, perceptible to the listener. The album concludes with Claude Debussy's "Reverie": for the two pianists, "a treasure full of nostalgia, whose melody depicts a musical utopia and thus points the way to Apollo's world."

On "Apollo & Dionysus", Kiveli and Danae Dörken present a programme that is both innovative and clever, a kind of musical visiting card for this highly energetic, life-affirming, stylistically versatile pair of sisters with their breathtaking pianistic abilities. For them, the piano duet is the most intimate form of chamber music – "a highly exposed art form, side by side on the same instrument" – that requires the most profound trust. And that is precisely what is conveyed on this album with a seldom-heard naturalness in the course of a captivating musical journey of four hands on 88 keys.

Danae Dörken, piano
Kiveli Dörken, piano

Danae Dörken
"Is the young pianist the discovery of the year?" asked the classical music magazine crescendo - and answered in the affirmative. "On her way to the top" is also how the reviewers of concerti magazine see her: the German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken belongs to the elite of internationally sought-after artists of a new generation, who captivates audiences and fellow musicians alike with breathtaking technique, extraordinary stage presence and musical depth.

Already encouraged by Yehudi Menuhin at the age of seven, Danae Dörken attracted attention early on in leading European concert halls with "her sparkling joy of playing" (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger). After studying with the internationally revered piano pedagogue Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and with Lars Vogt, she is now a regular guest with leading orchestras such as the Munich Symphony, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Norrlandsoperan Symphony and the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, and has given concerts at London's Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Mozarteum Salzburg, Tonhalle Zurich, Beaux-Arts Brussels, KKL Lucerne, Philharmonie Cologne, Philharmonie Essen, Gasteig Munich, Konzerthaus Berlin, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Beethoven-Haus Bonn. She can be heard regularly at important festivals such as the Kissinger Sommer, the Schwetzinger Festspiele, LuganoMusica, the Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the prestigious chamber music festival "Spannungen" in Heimbach.... Highlights of the 2020/21 season include concerts with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, recital debuts at the Cesis Concert Hall, Latvia, and return invitations to the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Dresden Music Festival and the Schumannfest Düsseldorf. Together with her sister, Kiveli, she performs the premiere of Faidros Kavallaris' work for 2 pianos in Cyprus.

In the 2019/20 season, Danae Dörken made recital debuts at the Lucerne Piano Festival and Tokyo Musashino Cultural Hall, among others, and debuted with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra and Neues Kammerorchester Potsdam. Her chamber music performances have included Wigmore Hall London, again with American violinist Benjamin Beilman at the Brucknerhaus Linz, and with her sister Kiveli at the Ruhr Piano Festival.

A passionate chamber musician, she has performed with artists such as Lars Vogt, Gustav Rivinius, Sharon Kam, Artur Pizarro, Christiane Oelze, Carolin Widmann, Benjamin Beilman, Benedict Klöckner and Katia & Marielle Labèque. Together with her sister Kiveli, Danae Dörken regularly presents groundbreaking four-hand piano repertoire. With oboist Philippe Tondre, she is recording three new albums for Klarthe Paris in cooperation with SWR.

Her benchmark CD recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 and the rarely heard 2nd Piano Concerto by Mendelssohn with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, released in 2016, received glowing reviews. Previously, Danae Dörken had released solo CDs of fantasias by Schumann, Schubert and C.P.E. Bach (on ARS Produktion), for which she won the ICMA Award, and her debut CD of works by Leoš Janáček (also on ARS Produktion) in 2012, which was enthusiastically received by critics. Her two current albums, "EAST and WEST" (ARS Produktion) and "Between Nostalgia and Revolution" (GENUIN), were nominated for both the German Record Critics' Award, the Opus Klassik, and an ICMA Award.

In 2015, Danae Dörken, who is of Greek descent, founded the Molyvos International Music Festival (MIMF) on the island of Lesbos with her sister. Between the financial crisis and the refugee drama, the MIMF not only brings the tradition of classical music to Lesvos, it also strengthens the musical relationship between Germany and Greece in the long term. Today, year-round benefit concerts and events are held throughout Germany together with leading MIMF soloists such as Marlis Petersen, Sebastian Manz, Maximilian Hornung, Philippe Tondre, Linus Roth and Lars Vogt. Danae Dörken's commitment has repeatedly been the subject of reports in the television magazines ttt and 3sat kulturzeit, on WDR and in numerous other media.

Kiveli Dörken
was born in Düsseldorf in 1995 and received her first piano instruction at the age of five from Marina Kheifets. She will make her debut at the C. Bechstein Concert Series in Düsseldorf in November 2014. From 2003 until 2012, Kiveli Dörken was a student of Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the Music Academy Hannover in the department for young highly gifted musicians. Since Prof. Kämmerling´s death, Kiveli pursues her studies at the Music Academy Hannover with Prof. Lars Vogt. She commands German, Greek and English fluently.

Kiveli Dörken often garnered First Prizes at the German music youth competition „Jugend musiziert“ on a regional, state-wide and national level triumphing there most recently in 2008. In 2005, she obtained the First Prize as youngest participant at the International EPTA Competition in Croatia, two years later she won the International Piano Competition Rotary-Jugend Musikpreis. Kiveli is a foundationer of the „Werner Richard - Dr. Carl Dörken Foundation“ (no relatedness!), the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and Lars Vogt´s festival „Spannungen“.Kiveli Dörken made her orchestra concert debut at the age of eight. She has performed at the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Kölner Philharmonie, Philharmonie Essen, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Stadthalle Wuppertal, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Erholungshaus Leverkusen, Sendesaal Bremen or at the Mozarteum Salzburg as well as at festivals such as Braunschweig Classix Festival and „Winter auf Mallorca“. She also takes pleasure in performing chamber music with the Szymanowski Quartet. The young pianist has toured throughout Germany, France, Austria, Liechtenstein, Italy, Spain, Greece, China, the UK and US.

Kiveli enjoys also performing piano works with her sister Danae. They performed together at the Tonhalle Düsseldorf and at the Kölner Philharmonie.The renowned broadcasting company ARTE filmed her in 2005, the TV channel WDR in 2009. Kiveli Dörken had the honour of performing for the Dalai Lama in 2007 and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in June 2009 in Washington D.C.

This album contains no booklet.