On December 22 and 23, the Charles Bronfman Auditorium will host a rare and extraordinary gathering: Eight pianos, 16 soloists. Sixteen Israeli pianists, all established internationally, will take the stage across eight grand pianos, performing without a conductor.
This will be a spectacle of precision, intimacy, and scale, a work of coordination as much as virtuosity – and the return of an event last seen more than four decades ago. The acclaimed piano duo Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg are orchestrating this ambitious project.
The project recalls a legendary concert in 1984, held as part of the Israel Festival. That original performance brought together leading pianists of the era, including Arie Vardi and other prominent musicians.
“We, of course, do not remember it, but Vardi was our esteemed and beloved teacher,” Silver remarks, adding that the producer, who attended the 1984 concert as a young man, prompted the revival.
“He remembers it to this day as an experience; not just that he didn’t forget, but that it was something ‘wow,’” she recalls.
The upcoming program is deliberately varied, structured around contrasts and complementarity. “Every piano is [already] like an orchestra unto itself,” Silver explains. “The sheer number of soloists makes it an orchestra in every sense, and we perform without a conductor.”
Technical challenges
Garburg highlights one of the project’s technical challenges: “Because the pianos are set so far apart on the stage, it simply takes a little time for the sound to pass.” The group’s high caliber, he explains, allows them to work together like a top-tier chamber orchestra, “where everyone listens for color and phrasing, not just catching a beat.”
He emphasizes that the musicians do more than learn their own parts: “We don’t just learn the part there; each musician actually learns the whole score.”
Coordinating 16 busy international soloists, flying in from as many as seven countries, posed a considerable logistical challenge. This was addressed with sectional rehearsals in hubs such as New York and Berlin.
“The togetherness [during rehearsals] is awfully nice, the Israeli-ness,” Silver says, reflecting on the emotional dimension, especially these days. “The gathering allows the musicians to share feelings of worry, and also of hope, and in the pain that was and is still present.”
She likens the atmosphere to a class reunion, noting that some performers have not shared a stage in 20 years.
The repertoire
The repertoire is a mixture of the spectacular, the intricate, and the unexpectedly playful. The evening opens with Ravel’s Boléro, which Garburg describes as “very, very smart, so brilliant,” praising its hypnotic repetition and the way it balances rhythmic coolness with melodic warmth.
It is immediately followed by a rediscovered arrangement of Vivaldi’s Spring, from The Four Seasons, found after “detective work” in a Swiss archive, which he says “takes your breath away” and brings a sense of light and vitality to the stage.
Unexpected juxtapositions punctuate the program. Shostakovich’s Waltz No. 2 and Lennon/McCartney’s “Eleanor Rigby,” arranged by Vardi, “are intended to flow as a continuous unit, demonstrating the ensemble’s ability to move seamlessly between contrasting styles.”
The evening also features ambitious, orchestrally inspired arrangements, including the Overture to Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and Leonard Bernstein’s electric “Mambo” from West Side Story. Garburg notes that the ensemble format offers a particular advantage in the Strauss: “We can move forward with the dotted rhythms, avoiding the timing difficulties that often challenge orchestras.”
Playfulness is woven throughout the program. Lavignac’s Galop-Marche for one piano with eight hands, Silver says, is “just hilarious; it’s really a funny piece,” serving as a secondary joke amid more demanding repertoire.
Pieces for six hands, such as Rachmaninoff’s Valse and Romance, are both technically challenging and intimate; Silver and Garburg say they occasionally perform some with their son. Ron Weidberg’s Chromatic Fugue and Circus Polka is, in Garburg’s words, a “crazy great work,” a 32-voice fugue that is chromatic, complex, and meticulously structured.
Minimalism finds its place in Steve Reich’s Piano Phase, expanded here to eight instruments, producing a “magical” effect. Garburg notes that the minimalist piece, which he likens to a “water painting” of shifting colors, is intended to be a deliberate contrast, making the audience “fly from side to side.”
The program closes with Bernstein’s “Mambo,” promising not just 32 hands but “hands and voices” for a grand, celebratory conclusion that embodies the energy, joy, and collaborative spirit of the ensemble.
The ensemble
The ensemble features a formidable assembly of world-renowned Israeli pianists, all active at the peak of their careers and based across the globe.
The list includes: Ido Bar-Shai (Germany), Alon Goldstein (US), David Greilsammer (Switzerland), artistic directors Gil Garburg and Sivan Silver (Germany), Tamar Halperin (Germany), Benjamin Hochman (Germany), Miri Yampolsky (US), Einav Yarden (Germany), Ariel Lany (UK), Matan Porat (Germany), Roman Rabinovich (Canada), Aviram Reichert (South Korea), Yossi Reshef (Germany), and Edna Stern (France).
The group’s high caliber includes Arthur Rubinstein Competition winners, festival directors, and professors at respected universities. The single exception in residence, Shlomi Shaban, is notable as both an acclaimed rock musician and a classically trained pianist.
Eight Pianos, 16 Soloists is a rare confluence of history, talent, and spectacle. It is a testament to collaboration, discipline, and the transformative power of music performed at scale: 32 hands, eight grand pianos, and the sum of decades of artistry converging on a single stage.
December 22-23, at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium, Tel Aviv. Tickets are available at kupat.co.il/show/8-piano.