Wiener Concert-Verein, William Garfield Walker, Margarita Höhenrieder & Antti Siirala - Mozart: Concerto for 2 Pianos in E-Flat Major, K. 365 - Françoise Choveaux: Cristián en el Tortoni Buenos Aires, Op. 261 (2025) [Hi-Res]

The first time Margarita Höhenrieder heard the Finnish pianist Antti Siirala, she was a member of the jury for the International Beethoven Competition in Vienna in May 1997. Many years later, Antti Siirala was appointed Professor for Piano at the University of Music and Theatre Munich – a happy coincidence that gave both the opportunity to make music together. The very first time they played together, we sensed a special musical relationship: a similar ideal of sound and a very deliberate way of listening to one another. Embarking with a fellow-musician on an artistic journey – such as making Mozart sound convincing on modern instruments, searching for the right tempo, rhythm, vivid phrasing, thrilling dynamics – is a highly creative process and certainly an inexhaustible source of inspiration. As an exciting contrast to their Mozart interpretations, they offer the South American sounds and rhythms of the bandoneon and the typically wistful melodies of the tango Cristián en el Café Tortoni Buenos Aires by Françoise Choveaux – a quite different but equally stimulating challenge. Höhenrieder also was introduced to the great bandoneon player on our recording, Sébastien Innocenti, by Françoise Choveaux. Margarita Höhenrieder is always treading unusual paths.

Together with her friend, the painter Bernd Zimmer, she holds creative performances: “2 left hands,” in which Bernd Zimmer creates a picture with his left hand while Margarita Höhenrieder plays works exclusively for the left hand. The well-known jazz musician Ingfried Hoffmann, Hjálmar Hegi Ragnarsson from Iceland and Francoise Choveaux wrote compositions especially for this performance.

The cover of this CD and the booklet feature the painting “Ast”, 2022 by Bernd Zimmer. The tango “Cristián en el Tortoni Buenos Aires” is dedicated to Margarita Höhenrieder.