With „Apollo & Dionysus“ the German-Greek sisters Danae and Kiveli Dörken are now, after several successful solo and ensemble recordings, presenting their first joint piano duet album: a studio debut with a sophisticated concept and breathtaking virtuosity.
These two poles of human existence – and particularly of artistic activity – are personified in Greek mythology by two gods: Apollo and Dionysus, sons of Zeus. The former stands for moderation, order and clarity, the latter for irrationality, chaos, amorphousness. And the two Dörken sisters see themselves as embodying this bipolarity: the chaotic, the wild – the Dionysian – aspects belong more to Kiveli’s nature, the older sister says, while order and clarity – the Apollonian attributes – are more Danae’s thing, according to the younger. Their new album, on which they present a very intimate look at their sisterly and artistic self-image with surprising and original repertoire combinations, thus bears the almost self-referential title of “Apollo & Dionysus”.