'A marvellous edition that is sure to write CD history' (Wilfried Schäper, Radio Bremen, on Duo Soós Haag's recording of all of Brahms' symphonies).
Artistic curiosity and high musical standards are the hallmarks of the Hungarian-Swiss piano duo Adrienne Soós and Ivo Haag, who have long been seen as one of the best chamber music ensembles both in Switzerland and far beyond. They recently finished recording all of Brahms' symphonies in the composer's own arrangements for piano four hands.
'...one of the best piano duos in the world'
'in addition, the duo's interaction is magnificent. This is not a case of two soloists playing together, but a real duo that lives and breathes together.'
These are just some of the things the critics said.
Soós and Haag are also passionate about reviving rarely performed works such as the concerto for two pianos and strings by Swiss composer Edward Staempfli, whose work has been entirely forgotten, or the Grande Sonate Symphonique No. 2 in B minor for Piano Four Hands (Opus 112) by Ignaz Moscheles. In everything they do, Soós and Haag are driven by the desire to explore the rich repertoire of music for piano duets and two pianos and to make it accessible to a wide audience. With large-scale projects such as the performance of complete cycles of the four-hand piano works of Franz Schubert and the four-hand/two-piano works of Debussy and Ravel in the Old Church Boswil, as well as their well thought-out, intelligent programmes, they have earned themselves an outstanding reputation far beyond the borders of Switzerland. These projects bring them together with artists such as the piano duos Labèque, Tal & Groethuysen, GrauSchumacher, and others. Their recitals have seen them perform in many locations and with numerous ensembles including the Lucerne Festival, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Internationale Pianisten Mainz series by the German broadcaster SWR, the Schumann-Haus Zwickau, the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, the Schubertiade Feldkirch, the Carinthian Summer Music Festival, the Musiktage Mondsee (artistic director: András Schiff), the Theater Casino Zug, the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the Société de Musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Kammermusik Bern series, the Ittinger Sonntagskonzerte, and the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich, to name but a few.
The Filarmonica Toscanini Parma, the Sinfonieorchester Biel Solothurn, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur, the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra, the Zuger Sinfonietta, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata Bern, the Camerata Zürich, and many more engage them as soloists, where they work with conductors such as Mario Venzago, Zsolt Nagy, Thomas Rösner, Peter Hirsch, and Jac van Steen. When it comes to concerts with orchestras too, they are always keen to break new ground. For example, they were the first to perform Jean Françaix's double concerto in Austria (at the Carinthian Summer Music Festival) and the first to perform the double concerto by Péter Eötvös in Switzerland (Biel). They have frequently performed with choirs such as the Zürcher Singakademie, the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir under the direction of Florian Helgath, and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir Vienna under the direction of Erwin Ortner.
Their contemporary music projects bring them together with such notable figures as Péter Eötvös, Rudolf Kelterborn, Krzysztof Meyer, and Dieter Ammann.
In recent years, the piano duo Soós Haag has recorded works by Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Bartók, and others for Telos Music, while their extensive discography also includes works by Honegger, Messiaen, Kelterborn, Ammann, Moscheles, Dussek, Hans Huber, and others. Their concerts are regularly broadcast on radio.
The duo has been awarded the Zuger Werkjahr award for its work. Adrienne Soós und Ivo Haag were also recently named official Bösendorfer Artists.
Both pianists studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest under Péter Solymos, György Kurtág, and Ferenc Rados, among others. Their cooperation with András Schiff has had a major influence on them.
