Friday May 25th, 2012 at 8 PM
Katona Twins
Admision fees:
Adults € 13
Pupils and Students € 10
Katona Twins
Critically acclaimed by the Daily Telegraph as “the classical world’s best known guitar duo”, Peter and Zoltán Katona effortlessly transfer from strictly classical, into more popular musical genres. They have given recitals in the major concert venues throughout the world including performances at the Carnegie Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo,and the Philharmonie in Cologne.
In 2009, as the soloists of the "Night of the Proms" they performed live to half a million people in arenas across Europe.
The twins have won over ten international prizes at major competitions in New York, London, Germany, France and Hungary and they are currently artists in residence in San Francisco.
The wide repertoire of the duo spans from Bach, Piazzolla’s tango music to their own arrangements of pop classics. Their programmes also include concertos for two guitars and orchestra by Rodrigo, Vivaldi, Piazzolla and Tedesco. Several contemporary composers have written for and dedicated works to the Katona Twins.
The duo studied in Budapest, Frankfurt and in London.
The Katona Twins have been invited on numerous occasions to record for the BBC and other international television and radio stations. Their CD releases include music by Scarlatti and Handel; Rodrigo; Albéniz, Piazzolla and Manuel de Falla.
Peter and Zoltan Katona were born in Hungary; they are German citizens and live in Liverpool in the UK.
Reviews
If you're up for a new approach to this music, you'll find this record
consistently well-played, emotional and exciting."
American Record Guide Jan/Feb 2010
They are extremely courageous to perform this transcription for guitars, percussion They are extremely courageous to perform this transcription for guitars, percussion and soprano of the spectacular soprano-with-orchestra original of Falla’s Love, the Magician.
The resultant transformation of the gypsy ballet is quite amazing. The love story about the gypsy girl….seems to fit the new guitar-based setting even better than with the full symphony. The classic Fire Dance sparkles, and the wild gypsy flavor permeates the entire work. The three dances from the Three-Cornered Hat are also a delight to hear in this new costuming.
The crystalline surround reproduction also adds to the impact of this brilliant music.
Audiophile Audition, January 17, 2010
This is a zippy collection of works by Manuel de Falla arranged for the dynamic Katona guitar duo, with percussion and the soprano Juanita Lascarro for good measure. It’s exhilarating….. It sounds somehow ‘uncomposed’, like genuine folksmusic. Than there is the darkly passionate voice of Lascarro for the songs – but in spite of the arrangements and new instrumentations its musicianship is beyond dispute. Percussionist David Garcia Mir and peter and Zoltan Katona have an extraordinary singularity of musical vision and effortlessness of technique, and both used in the service of the score: one never has the sense that they are trying to ‘improve’ Falla’s work. I found the ‘orchestral’ guitar textures of the ‘Danza de la molinera’ particularly impressive. Channel’s SACD sound is absolutely glorious, even on a standard CD player.
GRAMOPHONE November 2009
"The twins Peter and Zoltán Katona have created a guitar duo noted for spirited interpretations, amazing virtuosity, and an uncanny ensemble that many attribute to their shared genetic heritage. The brothers from Budapest move and breathe together, and they mark changes of mood with an exchange of glances that highlights their musical decisions. And in their Saturday concert at Herbst Theatre, the Katona Twins united what had once seemed to be the irreconcilable opposites of Bream’s unbridled enthusiasm and Williams’ calm mastery. "
San Francisco Classical Voice, 14 March 2009
“The concert at Keele featured the Carducci Quartet, the Katona Twins who play guitars and Daniel Storer on the double bass to underpin the sound. The musicians are asked to drum their instruments, play them with open strings, and produce strange whistling and scraping sounds. But it’s all held together with that tango rhythm, and strong harmonies and melodies.
The Piazzolla was twinned with music by Vivaldi. This combination played his music with just as much vivacity and abandon as they played that of Piazzolla. It was a concert I could have heard all over again.”
BBC Stoke Staffordshire, 20. November 2008
“..it’s no easy task for the audience to tell who is who. This holds especially true with their formidable guitar skills. For all the listener knows, one brother may well work the strings better than the other, but they’re both such masters that the only appropriate response is to feel lucky to see and hear double the excellence… the evening’s eclectic program included an astonishingly fast-fingered arrangement of the overture to Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito; Villa-Lobos’s haunting, and at times slightly goofy, Alma Brasileira; and the contemporary Canadian composer Derek Charke’s Time’s Passing Breath, a piece layering the dual guitars atop a prerecorded bed of crystalline bells, their rings electronically stretched and skewed nearly beyond recognition. If such a diverse, enticing sample is representative of their repertoire, it would be surprising indeed if any audience member left without wanting to hear what other musical surprises the brothers Katona have up their black sleeves.”
Independent, Santa Barbara, US, 23. October 2008
“The brilliant Katona Twins … formidable virtuoso technique,
their performances, could hardly be bettered for charm, zest, wit and colouristic flair.”
Daily Telegraph, 8.September 2007
Twins turn kindred spirit into harmonious telepathy
Peter and Zoltan Katona make you think you are seeing double — and their sound plays the same trick on the ear, for here is a guitar duo playing absolutely as one. The empathy of siblings can work well in music, but twins may turn kindred spirit into telepathy. As they rolled (and almost rocked) through a classical - and jazzy-folky - programme heavy on Italian, Spanish and Latin American compositions, I thought how silly to say such a pair play the guitar. They pluck, strum, stroke, scratch, tap and slap - proving the versatility of the musical child’s instrument of choice. An encore of Albeniz’s Majorca was a sweet ending to a thrilling evening.
Eastern Daily Press, Norwich, 8. May 2006
Katona twins leave audience spellbound
The history of shared playing, not to mention shared genes, seems to have given them instant communication with each other.
Their style of playing is clear, economical and uncluttered, producing a vocabulary of sounds, including percussive, silky, bell-like, scrapes along the wire-bound strings and scrubbing across instant communication with each other.
The effect on the audience was spell-binding and they were fascinated throughout the programme…
Guernsey Press, 6.May 2006
The Hungarian duo of Peter and Zoltan Katona filled the Wigmore Hall, selling out even the standing room tickets, and the audience were certainly not disappointed as they poured their complete minds and spirits into the performance. They opened with two arrange-ments of pieces by Albeniz: Mallorca and Aragon from Suite Espanola. I particularly enjoyed the vibrato used in Mallorca and the playfulness between them, taking advantage of the division of voices from its original solo piano version. The French Suite No.5 in G, BWV 816 by JS Bach was played with beautifully clear voicing, even in the fast passages of the Courante and Bouree. Their dynamics were smoothly shaped and the melodic lines were very lyrical with tasteful-ly executed ornaments.
The Katona Twins gave a highly energetic performance Falla's Three Dances from The Three-Cornerned Hat. In the Miller's Dance the excitement was height-ened by their incredibly tight ensemble, even in the strummed passages. They played the melodic line Neighbour's Dance with a great longevity, which seemed to trans-port you into an open landscape. And finally in the Dance of the Miller's Wife their interpretation took on a wild spirit, which was full of character and provided an appropriately dramatic ending to a very fine concert.
Classical Guitar Magazine, March 2006
"the classical world's best known guitar duo"
The Daily Telegraph 19 March 2005
Golden Ear Award
Peter and Zoltan Katona, in addition to genetic material, share a fabulous guitar technique and highly refined musical instincts, applied here to a disc devoted to the Argentinean composer and tango master Astor Piazzolla. The readings are dramatically taut, alternately delicate and assertive, with exceptionally clean passage work and crystalline harmonics. There are stretches of exquisite beauty, as with the haunting "Milonga" movement of Homenaje Lieja. The ten-minute title track (Le Grand Tango), though played by the brothers alone, is practically symphonic in scope. This is a beautifully made guitar recording, with loads of detail and startling dynamics, close-up but without much sound of fingers sliding on strings. Picked notes and strummed chords are characterized with extraordinary verisimilitude; so are percussive knocks an the body of the instrument and scrapes on the strings. Every aspect of the Katonas astounding virtuosity is here to savour.
The Absolute Sound, December 2004
„The Twins recital erupted with as dynamic an opening as anyone could wish for. The pair transfixed the audience with a glorious demonstration of the guitar’s art. Rarely have I heard such dynamism coupled with incisive musical articulation; an overture to whet the most sated of appetites. …This was Bach played on the guitar in monumental fashion. …The fabulous textures and variety of tones created by the Twins soon became a seductive, melodic unity. The Katona Twins, Peter and Zoltan Katona are two musicians moving at full tilt and their recordings and performances are essential listening for followers of the contemporary classical guitar scene.”
Classical Guitar Magazine, November 2004
“A beautifully played disc of very different arrangements of Piazzolla’s music.
...in the hands of Peter and Zoltán Katona it proves a vibrant triptych, the vigorous outer movements encasing a warm-hearted Andante. …The redistribution of the bandoneon to a second guitar part works very neatly and the reduction of the accompaniment to a string quintet gives the music — dynamic and lyrical as in the Tango Suite — a chamber music intimacy.
The same is true of the other pieces…..cleaner lines, slightly more pace, more refined in tonal palette yet still possessing the original’s combination of elegance and earthiness. A rare achievement.”
Gramophone, September 2004
