Composed in 1999–2000, the work is a musical palindrome, i.e. the same backwards and forwards. Listen to a recording of the whole piece backwards or watch the video backwards and there would be almost no difference. Before the performance a video is shot of the entire piece. In this recording, the pianist not only plays all of the notes in reverse order, but also performs all of the action backwards. Accordingly most of the sounds and passages in Mach Sieben are also symmetrical. The video is then projected on a wall or screen in the concert next to the pianist showing the piano and the pianist in natural size. But it is played backwards. So feignedly the live pianist and the video pianist seem to do the same throughout the entire piece.

Michael Beil