Piano Lightscapes – a concert like no other: soaring, polychrome, emotional
Teo Milea and Kurt Laurenz Theinert: Piano Lightscapes, 918 Bathurst Culture&Arts Centre, Toronto. Sunday 29 October 2017 (Sold out concert).
I always knew Teo Milea‘s music is cinematic. Laurenz Theinert brought those visions to life.
Fabulous Halloween lights are out on display on a cold Sunday night in the Annex neighbourhood. The 918 Bathurst Culture and Arts Centre is a former Buddhist temple and even though it hasn’t put out a visual display for the trick & treaters, there will be lights to remember in the next 90 minutes.
It is my 5th Teo Milea concert in Toronto and once again I notice the venue is sold out. The two pianos (musical and visual) are set in front of the stage, at audience level, rather than on top of it, a way to give more space to conquer to the four laser projectors.
The concert begins and Laurenz’s lightscapes conjure skyscraper jungles, cosmic vistas or the gentle flakes of a first snowfall.
Across from him, the same man behind the piano theology of Cathedral or triple-meter dance of Sarabanda expels the glorious climax of Journey, stamping at pedals like a fine-tuned piston engine. Laurenz follows closely on his own keyboard, and there are moments of levity, or near enough.
