Moonlight Piano concert against shipwreck backdrop

Just when you think you have seen it all, something new appears to prove you wrong. As the summer cultural agenda enters its busy season, exciting events take place all over the island. A unique event is coming to Paphos on Saturday – an outdoor concert with two grand pianos travelling to Peyia’s sea caves!

The Piano Tour is known to host alternative music concerts at new and unheard-of locations around the island. When in 2019 the Avantgarde Cultural Foundation organised the first recital of The Piano Tour series, it explained that it was all about a ‘different type’ of attempt to interact with the largest possible audience. The foundation, which works systematically towards the development of musical education in Cyprus and the promotion of local cultural products, has since organised a series of recitals in interesting, unconventional and sometimes inaccessible locations, which are streamed live on its Facebook page and posted on YouTube.

Thirteen concerts by 14 different artists (piano, clarinet, voice, saxophone) have already taken place. June has already seen a performance in Paphos last Saturday at Tombs of the Kings as part of the European Archaeology Days, in co-operation with Unesco.

On Saturday, The Piano Tour will take audiences to an idyllic location in Paphos. This time two grand pianos will travel to the sea caves of Peyia, in front of the wreck of Edro III that dominates the area. At 6.45pm, Natalia Lezedova, Nina Ioannidou, Ivelina Ruseva and Galina Dimova – the pianists who compose the Piano Quartet – will perform works for one piano, two pianos, four hands and eight hands with a unique repertoire that spans from dances and waltzes by Tchaikovsky to works by Piazzolla and Hadjidakis. And all this, in front of the wreck as the sun goes down.

The Piano Quartet developed from the need of four pianists to overcome the loneliness of the pianist as a soloist. “That kind of loneliness is something that we grow up with, but it doesn’t mean that we are lonely as characters,” the team members say.

The Piano Quartet will perform a programme that will be both visually and acoustically delightful, including transcriptions for eight hands on one and two pianos. Audiences will be given the opportunity to enjoy the introduction from the opera Ruslan and Lyudmila by Mikhail Glinka, a waltz from the Sleeping Beauty ballet by Tchaikovsky, Champagne Toccata by William Gillock, the iconic Escualo by Astor Piazzolla, songs by Manos Hadjidakis transcribed by Dimitris Tsoukas (especially for this concert), a selection from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet as transcribed by Nikolas Economou, Armenian Rhapsody by Arno Babajanian, a selection from Bennett’s Four Piece Suite and the unique Galop-Marche by Albert Lavignac.

The Piano Tour EDRO III Shipwreck

The Piano Quartet perform on two grand pianos. Organised by the Avantgarde Cultural Foundation with the sponsorship of the Deputy Ministry of Culture and The Hellenic Bank. June 24. Sea Caves Pegeia, Paphos. 6.45pm. www.facebook.com/AvantgardeCulturalFoundation