Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Exciting two-piano pieces?

what about the holst's the planets???

i love this thread!!!!

When it peters out I'm gonna print it up and check out a bunch of these pieces.

I know these are a not Romantic, but how about some of Mozart's Piano Concertos? These have been transcribed for two pianos, and not all of them are difficult.

Another suggestion is Clementi's Sonatas for two pianos.

On the Romantic, and more difficult side, try some of the works by Louis Gottschalk.

Good luck with these. When you can find someone to play along with, piano playing takes on a whole new meaning.

John

I'm surprised that Dvorak's Slavonic Dances haven't been mentioned yet. They fit the bill perfectly .....exciting, dramatic, and definitely romantic.

I love the Slavonic Dances - but as far as I know, the most well-known arrangement is for four-hands.

I play for a high-school string class and we are working on one of these now. Such wonderful music.

I have to disagree there... I've always liked the 4-hand Sonata and think it is a shame that so few people know it. I've tried to read through the 2-piano Sonata many times but it just doesn't grab me the same way.

Indeed you're right, the Slavonic Dances are four-hand pieces. Heck, you can play 'em on two pianos if you want!

I've performed the Brahms "Liebeslieder Waltzes" both ways.

It's nice to have an entire piano to yourself but on the other hand, it is so much easier to stay in synch when the other performer is sharing a keyboard with you.

I love schubert's fantasy for 4 hands...

two piano music? Ligeti wrote some great music for 2 pianos

What about Messiaen's visions d'amen? 4 hands or 2 pianos?

I apologize if you really weren't making a jab at me. I understand your point about the over-popularity of the Fantas(ie, ia, y?), but I'm not sure I'd call its popularity unmerited. It seemed to fit his description perfectly, that is until I realized he said 2 pianos and not 4 hands.

Another great one is Poulenc's concerto for 2 pianos, unfortunately then you also have to find an orchestra willing to play along.

How about Brahms Sonata for 2 pianos, Op.34b? It's the original version of the piano quintet with the same opus number (without the "b" on the end!)

Also try Liszt - any of the 4 hand / 2 piano works, mostly arrangments of his other works but there are many of these so just pick one (in total, I calculate that Liszt's 2 piano / 4 hands works would fit on about 10 - 12 CDs. Come on some enterprising record company, get on with it and record them all)

There's also Moszkowski Spanish Dances too. These not only sound really nice, but are really fun to play.

I forgot about the Slavonic Dances by Dvorak. They can be difficult, but also fun to play.

John

The Moszkowski and Dvorak are one piano. You can pretty much dance all around Europe four hands at a time: Brahms' Hungarian Dances, Dvorak's Slavonic Dances, Moszkowski's Spanish Dances, Busoni's Finnish Dances, Janacek's Moravian Dances, Bruch's Swedish Dances...

There are a lot more duets than there are duo piano works. More people could afford one piano than two.