Transcriptions for Two Pianists

Transcriptions for Two Pianists

Played by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and François-Frédéric Guy, these two-piano transcriptions renew ones experience of three great orchestral works, each premiered in 1913. Mr. Bavouzets Jeux is, like any fine transcription, far more than a memento of the original. Not only the trills and tremolandos needed to maintain sustained notes and chords, but also the pianists interplay, lines and motifs bouncing between them, become active participants in an intimate music of undulant ambiguity, dream and darkness. In Full Flower, the first of Bartóks Two Pictures, often taken as his most Debussian composition, Zoltán Kocsis in his transcription emphasizes rather its fully Bartókian character by bringing out its luxuriant and blossoming Hungarian aspects. The two pictures here provide a route from Debussys world of erotic reverie to Stravinskys of ancient ritual. The thundering and the bells of the two pianos in full and accurate fury make this version of Stravinskys Le Sacre du printemps hardly less forceful in the hands of these dazzling and virtuosic pianists.