Wooden wedges, marbles, foil: Volker Bertelmann likes to prepare his piano with all sorts of things. Oh yes, and he also has an Oscar. His win changed a lot for him.
At the end of the concert there will be a clearing out. When Volker Bertelmann presented his new album to an audience for the first time at Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival in September, he rose from his stool at the end and started a clean-up operation. He plucks wooden and felt wedges from the strings of his grand piano, removes thumbtacks and adhesive tape, light foil and erasers. Objects that he had previously placed in certain places to distort the sound of the keys. Then he plays a short piece on the piano, which has been freed in this way, and bows to the loud applause.