Önder Sisters & Jussen Brothers — 2 Pianos 8 Hands
- I. Stravinsky – Les Noces
- M. Ravel – Boléro
- B. Bartók – Sonata for 2 Pianos & Percussion
1001 Night / The Oriental Night à la Turca (Say, Korsakov, Borodin)
For 2 pianos, or one piano 4 hands, with or without narrator.
- A. BORODIN – In the Steppes of Central Asia
arrang. for 2 pianos Sabri Tulu Tirpan - Fazıl SAY – “Winter Morning in Istanbul”
- R. KORSAKOV – Scheherazade, Symphonic Suite, Op. 35 for 1 piano 4 hands (arr. by the composer)
“The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship”
“The Story of the Kalendar Prince”
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- Fazıl SAY – Ballade “For the Lovers” (arr. for 2 pianos, Michael Snack)
or - Fazıl SAY – “Night” for 4 hands 1 piano
- R. KORSAKOV – Sheherazade
“The Young Prince and Princess”
“Festival at Baghdad”
Bruckner Symphony No. 7 (arr. Hanns Eisler, Erwin Stein & Karl Rankl)
For piano 4 hands, clarinet, horn, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, double bass, harmonium.
Because of the Corona Pandemic, the duo played this chamber-ensemble arrangement of Bruckner’s 7th Symphony in Münster/Basel on 17–18 June 2020.
Die Neunte Welle ≠ Ode an die Natur
Die neunte Welle ist ein visuelles Klanggedicht. Assoziative, fabelhafte, lebendige, experimentelle Bilder, Farben und Bewegung interagieren mit Geräuschkunst, mit Komposition und musikalischen Fragmenten. Es geht um Wasser und Luft, Erde und Himmel, Natur und Mensch, Suchen und Finden, Verachtung und Respekt, Verzweiflung und Glaube, Flucht und Rettung, Zerstörung und Hoffnung, Tod und Leben.
Piano & Percussion: Ferhan & Ferzan Önder mit Martin Grubinger & Friends
- Steve Reich: Quartet for two pianos and 2 vibraphones
- Fazıl Say: “Gezi Park 2,” Concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra Op. 52 (arr. Martin Grubinger Sr.)
- Fazıl Say: Concerto for percussion and orchestra Op. 77 (arr. Achilleas Wastor)
- Tan Dun: Tears of Nature, Concerto for percussion and orchestra (arr. Martin Grubinger Sr.)
- Astor Piazzolla: Libertango (arr. Achilleas Wastor)
Turkey Meets Greece
Project for 4 pianos with: Cyprien Katsaris, Janis Vakarelis, Ferhan & Ferzan Önder
This fantastic project includes 4 musical personalities, among them the internationally known pianist Cyprien Katsaris, the great artist Janis Vakarelis and the outstanding twin sisters Ferhan and Ferzan Önder. The concert promises and electrifying, energetic passion for the audience and the artist themselves.
The aim of this project is to overcome the marked Greek-Turkish relations of the past, by playing a wonderful repertoire including Wagner and Say, and to reach out to the audience’s heart with passionate intimacy on stage.
Repertoire:
- Richard Wagner – Tannhäuser Overture (transcr. Carl Burchard)
- Antonín Dvořák – Slavonic Dance No. 2 in E minor, Op. 72 (for 4 hands)
- Antonio Vivaldi – Spring, from The Four Seasons (transcr. Nicolas Economou)
- Francis Poulenc – L’Embarquement pour Cythère (for 2 pianos)
- Georges Bizet – Carmen Fantasy (arr. Achilleas Wastor)
- Franz Liszt – Rákóczi March (transcr. August Horn)
- Fazıl Say – Winter Morning in Istanbul (for 4 hands)
- Maurice Ravel – Boléro (transcr. Jacques Drillon)
- Mikis Theodorakis – Zorba, Suite (arr. Achilleas Wastor)
Novecento – The Ocean Pianist(s)
The project is based on the italian monologue by Alessandro Baricco. The wonderful story describes the life of an incredible and young pianist Novecento, spending his whole life on a great ship. The musicality of the pianists Ferhan and Ferzan Önder from Tokat (Turkey) mirrors the longing, the width of the sea and the magic and charm that emanates from the story about Novecento. The twins fascinate the audience with their electrifying playing and the way they complete each other while performing.
The Piano-Duo established themselves as one of the most promising Piano-Duos of the younger generation in the world’s concert circuit. The award winners of the Casagrande competition Terni and the Piano-Duo competition Hamburg 2001 had their break through with their CD “Vivaldi Reflections” which had been released at EMI in 2001 and also won the coveted ECHO KLASSIK Prize of the German Phono Academy.
This lead to collaborations with Sir Peter Ustinov, Cornelia Probess, Armin Müller- Stahl, Friedrich Von Thun, Günther Jauch und Roger Willemsen, among many others.
The Repertoire includes pieces by the well-known composer Johann Sebastian Bach and the renowned and world famous Jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. The pieces and the extracts from “Novecento” by Alessandro Baricco are being perfromed in full harmony by Ferhan and Ferzan Önder and read by several famous collaborators.
“Today I know that Novecento had decided to sit down and let his fingers play the white and black ivories of his life… Novecento would still dance to whatever part of life was left, without a doubt, after listening to that music.”
Arcis & Önders Sextet: A Dancing Fantasy
Saxophone Quartet & Piano Duo
What can be expected if a Turkish piano duo meets a German saxophone quartet bringing Russian dances with them?
It’s going to be a charming concert evening with romantic melodies, Russian-expressive harmony and dramatic depth, which shows that classical-Russian dance music is a universal subject which inspires musicians and the audience worldwide.
Thus the Arcis Saxophon Quartett and the Ferhan & Ferzan Piano Duo present works by Rachmaninov, Prokofieff and Igudesman.
The opulent sonority and energetic-rhythmical complexity à la Sacre du printemps in Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances has its counterpart in the ballet suite Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev. No Surprise, the premieres took place almost simultaneously in the 20th century.
Aleksey Igudesman – himself born in St. Petersburg – joins the ranks in this tradition with his work specially composed for this ensemble, this takes the audience on a journey through the whole of Russia and, therefore, shows the full range of Russian-folkloristic dance music.
In the intimacy and subtlety of chamber music up to the illusion of the richness of tone of a late romantic orchestra, the six musicians merge the sound of the saxophones with the rich sound of a piano duo and bring the nostalgia of “Old Russia” into the concert hall, which inspired the composer in the turn to Modern Age.
You won’t forget this extraordinary evening!
4 Hands 4 Women – Anonymous Was a Woman
A project by Ferhan and Ferzan Önder
We need to make sure, that the value of women is known to our children, so that they are empowered to change the world! “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman“. This expression has its historical roots in a quote from Virginia Woolf’s essay ‘A Room of One’s own’. The essay itself evolved from a series of lectures that Woolf delivered at two women’s only Cambridge University colleges and investigated the challenges faced by women living in a patriarchal culture.
A woman was anonymous and she will no longer be that anymore. She raises her voice and gets attention, be this in terms of music, text or in another way.
This concert highlights works by female composers which will be contrasted with texts by various authors such as Clarice Lispector, Forough Farrokhzad or Sarah Kane. The following works for two pianos will be performed by Ferhan and Ferzan Önder. The styles of the compositions are very diverse: works shaped in baroque and classical style, contemporary pieces, very rhythmical pieces as well as music by Clara Schumann.
Composers and Pieces:
Zeynep Gedizlioglu – Strength for one piano 4 hands
Anna Drubich – Her Dances for 2 pianos
Amritha Vaz – Jyoti/Light for one piano 4 hands
Rachel Grimes – And it was her Birthday; dedicated to Clara Wieck Schumann for 2 pianos or one piano 4 hands
Johanna Doderer – “Like the Sun” for 2 pianos
Philipp Glass –Movement for 2 pianos
Philipp Nykrin – Carla for 2 Pianos
The composers participating in this project all have solid and diverse international careers. El-Turk has composed for the London Symphony Orchestra, Vaz for various Hollywood productions and Grimes’ works were used for the film ‘La Grande Bellezza’ that won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe. Shamloo studied composition, traditional Iranian music, electronic music and piano at the University of Tehran and holds a prominent position at an art gallery in Tehran. Drubich is a recipient of several awards and prizes both as a composer as well as a pianist.
Doderer‘s works have been performed at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Vienna Musikverein and the Vienna State Opera and Özdil has composed for the Royal Opera House/Covent Garden.
Within this grouping of texts there are excerpts of theoretical texts, of lyric poetry as well as passages from a theatre play or from a novel. This generates a diversity of voices and also displays collective intersections. The female identity is the common leitmotiv of these texts.
„The Laugh of the Medusa“ by French theatre theorist Hélène Cixous formulates an “écriture féminine“ (feminine writing) and advocates new ways of thinking and writing about women and literature. The synthesis of music and text is seen as a sisterhood of forms of expressions. According to this femininity in writing does not refer to a concrete text being written but it becomes a metaphor for female ways of expression as well as for female creation per se.
In the following excerpt from “Aqua viva“ Brazillian author Clarice Lispector creates a dense web of text and overrides the rules or grammar in order to explore herself with a language free of rules. For Hélène Cixous this is a prime example for “écriture féminine“.
In the poem “O Jewel-studded Land“ Iranian writer Forough Farrokhzad processes the legal attestation in her country of brith during the time of the shah. Using a rather free form of verse, she raises the question if an official registration will also make her more visible as a person.
Every night at the same time British playwright Sarah Kane had been waking up in a moment of depression. The play “4.48 Psychosis “derives its name from the time she arises and finds herself in a state of purest clarity that seems to counter the confusion of her psychosis, and rather ironically this also occurs at a time when others could imagine it is her peak of delusion.
Composer Hans Werner Henze called Ingeborg Bachmann’s autobiographical novel “Malina“ as Gustav Mahler’s 11th symphony. The anonymous first-person narrator defeats her “father“, her personal personification of horror.
Initiators and musicians of this project are the pianists Ferhan and Ferzan Önder who have been appointed “Goodwill Ambassadors” of UNICEF since 2003.
They perform all over the world (including in: Austria, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, France, United Kingdom, USA) to international acclaim and were awarded with the prestigious ECHO Klassik prize.
Das 2005 gegründete Borusan Quartet setzt sich aus führenden Musikern des Borusan Istanbul Philharmonieorchesters zusammen. Das noch junge Quartett spielt auf Instrumenten von unschätzbarem Wert und wurde 2010 bereits von der Fachzeitschrift „Andante“ als Kammermusikensemble des Jahres ausgezeichnet. Im selben Jahr errang es den ersten Preis beim internationalen Kammermusikwettbewerb ICMEC in der Carnegie Hall. Abgesehen von regelmäßigen Konzerten in der Türkei tourt das Quartett u. a. auch in Frankreich, Deutschland, Österreich und den USA. Sein Repertoire umfasst Werke türkischer Komponisten ebenso wie Streichquartette von der Klassik bis zur Moderne.
Gemeinsame Auftritte gab es bisher in Istanbul, Berlin, Schloss Elmau, Bodenseefestival.
Programm for 1 Piano 4 Hands & Stringquartet
Fazil Say – “Winter morning in Istanbul”
Ulvi Cemal Erkin – Stringquartet
Fazil Say – Night
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Aleksey IgudesmN – Turkish Dances “from Edirne to Kars”