Cyprien Katsaris and Etsuko Hirose open new
Centre C. Bechstein in Paris
It was a great concert! Cyprien Katsaris and Etsuko Hirose performed at the official opening in the new Centre C. Bechstein Paris and delighted the around 60 invited guests. The new C. Bechstein Partner Center on Rue de Rome, number 50, is located in the so-called Instrument Street, where numerous violin, cello, guitar and flute makers as well as sheet music shops are also located. The best spot in town for a specialist shop for high-quality pianos and grand pianos!
Large shop windows make the new C. Bechstein partner center a light-flooded showroom in which concerts with predominantly young musicians are also to take place on a regular basis. Corine Glogowski, Managing Director of Piano International and the new C. Bechstein Partner Center, was delighted by the numerous guests of honor, including many pianists, in view of the posh interior design.
Ralf Dewor, Head of Sales at C. Bechstein Pianoforte AG, thanked Corine Glogowski and Annick Abraham of Bechstein's French sales partner Saico Euroclaviers for their great commitment in the French capital and wished the team at the new Centre C. Bechstein every success. As a gift, the Bechstein team had brought along a large Berlin Bechstein bear, which with its artistic painting conjures up Franco-German friendship and builds a bridge from the Brandenburg Gate to the Eiffel Tower. Dewor also mentioned the historical aspect of this opening in his speech: C. Bechstein had already opened a shop on Rue St. Honoré in 1903, and 117 years later the new Center Bechstein now was opening on Rue de Rome.
The renowned pianists Cyprien Katsaris and Etsuko Hirose musically opened the new center and played on the C. Bechstein concert grand D 282 on which they had also recorded their last CDs in Paris. Etsuko Hirose presented works by Chopin and also extracts from her new album for the Danacord label, which is dedicated to Moritz Moszkowski. At the ceremony on the occasion of Carl Bechstein's 70th birthday, Moritz and Alexander Moszkowski had performed their musical parody "Anton Notenquetscher am Clavier MoszWV 205".
Cyprien Katsaris then revived the spirit of the 19th century, the century of the composer pianists: he performed his own long improvisation on works by Rachmaninov, Wagner and other composers who were closely connected to Carl Bechstein. After an excursion into the unknown works of Beethoven (to be found on his new six-CD box for the label PIANO 21), he also inspired the piano duo with Etsuko Hirose.
It got serious again when Cyprien Katsaris, as a video message to the employees of C. Bechstein China, internalized the Adagio from Alessandro Marcello's oboe concerto in Johann Sebastian Bach's transcription for piano solo. In the past, Katsaris had toured through China and also to Wuhan with Bechstein. He gave courage to the friends there. The wonderful concert ended with this great gesture. The opening of the new Centre C. Bechstein in Paris will reverberate for a long time.
