Nik Bärtsch and Tania Giannouli the EFG London Jazz Festival’s dynamic duo

This performance at Wigmore Hall was only the fourth time that pianists Nik Bärtsch and Tania Giannouli have performed live together as a duo, having first met back in 2022 at the Enjoy Jazz Festival in Germany. A marvellous meeting of two musical minds, this gig was certainly one of the more eclectic to feature at this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival.

Swiss-born Bärtsch is perhaps the more well-known of the two artists, having released seven albums on ECM since his debut with the label in 2006. His music is cerebral, richly conceptual and heavily influenced by minimalism and contemporary classical composition. In contrast, the slightly lesser-known Giannouli has a style which is more conventionally lyrical, with she has melodic intuition which subtly hints at the folk tunes of her Greek homeland.

The duo pushed the boundaries of what is meant by ‘playing the piano’. Bärtsch is an especially rhythmic pianist, and he was certainly not afraid to venture into the whacky world of extended piano techniques. This included chromatic strumming of the strings, plucked harmonic notes, and even drumming of the piano’s soundboard with a variety of drumsticks and mallets. Whilst Bärtsch primarily took the role of soundscape artist, Giannouli kept the performance grounded in melody. The result was an evocative and absorbing sound which filled the striking vaulted ceilings of Wigmore Hall.

The set was short and efficient – just a touch over the hour mark. Somewhat bizarrely, they performed not one, nor two… but three full encores, each separated with copious amounts of bowing and applause. This certainly divided the audience: half were delighted, the other half were mildly irritated. Encore overload aside, the music was simply mesmerising. It was a fantastic demonstration of the sheer diversity of music that can fall beneath the umbrella of the term ‘jazz’.