One Piano : Six Hands Pieces

[Lance]

A while ago, I put up a subject asking for recommendations of one piano/six hand piano works. I didn't get any recommendations, but for those interested in such things, I report the following:

Carl Czerny wrote a few of these pieces ranging in 6-10 minutes each. Percy Grainger also wrote a couple of pieces, and Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote two pieces for one piano/six hands: A "Valse" and a "Romance," both of which can be found on a Harmonia Mundi two-CD set [2901301, "twofer" priced], played by Brigitte Engerer, Oleg Maisenberg, and Elena Bachkirova. The Rachmaninoff apparently has no opus numbers.

Think of it, thirty (30) fingers on one piano, six hands crossing each other! (Let's hope all the pianists are of slim build!) It's tough enough for a composer to write for one piano, 10 fingers, and 20 fingers doubles the problem, but 30 fingers ... must cause some confusion for the composer not to mention the pianists.

If your memory has been jogged at all for additional pieces, I am still interested.

[12tone]

How does that one old song go of 10 kids jumping on the bed, and one fell off? Now we have 9 kids jumping on the bed and one fell off... and so on. Or were they monkeys?

Oh forget it, joke failed.

[Werner]

Here is one: Czerny's Fantasia on Scottish Airs, op. 147 for one piano six hands - played by Alicia DeLarrocha, Raymond Lewenthal, and Gunnar Johanson at he International Piano Library BenefitnConcert, at Hunter College, October 3, 1970.

Released as a two-LP album, IPL 5005/6.

On two LPs, you can expect a lot more than that - performances by the above three and Jorge Bolet, Ivan Davis, Michael Nay, Jesus Maria Sanroma, Fernando Valenti, Guiomar Novaes, Bruce Hungerford, and Rosalyn Tureck.

And non-pianists: Beverly Sills in an uproarious takeoff on Chiopin, devised by Roland Gagnon - and a movement from Reineke's Children's Symphony, playted on toy instruments by Jack Romannm, Ned Rorem, Alan Rich, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Joseph Machlis, Philip L. Miller, Micheal May, Peter Hamparian, Masako Yanagita, David Everhart, Arthur Ravander, and Gregor Benko.

What an evening that was!

[Lance]

Here is one: Czerny's Fantasia on Scottish Airs, op. 147 for one piano six hands - played by Alicia DeLarrocha, Raymond Lewenthal, and Gunnar Johanson at he International Piano Library BenefitnConcert, at Hunter College, October 3, 1970.

Released as a two-LP album, IPL 5005/6.

On two LPs, you can expect a lot more than that - performances by the above three and Jorge Bolet, Ivan Davis, Michael Nay, Jesus Maria Sanroma, Fernando Valenti, Guiomar Novaes, Bruce Hungerford, and Rosalyn Tureck.

And non-pianists: Beverly Sills in an uproarious takeoff on Chiopin, devised by Roland Gagnon - and a movement from Reineke's Children's Symphony, playted on toy instruments by Jack Romannm, Ned Rorem, Alan Rich, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Joseph Machlis, Philip L. Miller, Micheal May, Peter Hamparian, Masako Yanagita, David Everhart, Arthur Ravander, and Gregor Benko.

What an evening that was!

Yes, I have this LP album and have enjoyed it for years. It is something that deserves to be on compact discs for today's listeners. The only thing I'm sorry about is that I was not there amongst the audience. I suspect it was a sell-out.

[Werner]

If it wasn't as sellout, is was close. We were there. Of course, you know it was an exhibitionist sort of atmosphere, in which the simplicity of the Scbubert waltzes played by Bruce Hungerford stood out.

But that Liszt six-hand piece, Guiomar Novaes playing the Gottschalk Grand Fantasy and Varfiations on the Basilian National Anthem, and Jorge Bolet playing two Liszt paraphrases were among the outstanding display pieces.