Etudes are intended to help the musician achieve greater technical proficiency and to be a harmonic variation on simple exercises. In doing so, they rehearse and repeat a technical problem and thus educate the instrumentalist in a musical way. However, as early as the 19th century, musicians recognized that etudes are much more than mechanical exercises, but can also be demanding and interesting musical works - especially Frédéric Chopin helped the genre gain new popularity in the piano metier.

The piano also occupies a central position in György Ligeti's oeuvre; between 1985 and 2001 he composed a total of 18 highly virtuosic piano etudes. Sometimes the etudes are titled "the most difficult thing ever written for piano". Also due to the composer's fascination with the instrument, some of the pieces were later arranged for the so-called "player piano" - that is, for "self-playing" pianos. In the spirit of "Man, machine! Music!", not only the pianists will be heard, but also their mechanical equivalent of the "player piano" with the pre-programmed interpretation of the piece.

It is widely known that Rachmaninov also liked to compose a lot for the keyboard instrument. With the Études-Tableaux op. 33 he composed expressive character pieces, which will be juxtaposed with Ligeti's etudes on this evening and illustrate how differently "exercises" can sound. 

György Ligeti: 18 Études pour piano
Sergei Rachmaninov: Études-Tableaux op. 33

With: students, teachers and guests of the UdK Berlin and "Player Piano", among others Girim Choi, Jan Michiels, Markus Groh, piano

On this day you can experience the installations of the Sound Studies program in the foyer.