Transcriptions for Two Pianists
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Label: Chandos
Cat No: CHAN10863
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Chamber
Release Date: 1st June 2015
Contents
Works
Pictures (2), op.10 BB59 (trans. Zoltan Kocsis for 2 pianos)Jeux (trans. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet for 2 pianos)
The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps) (piano duet)
Artists
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)Francois-Frederic Guy (piano)
Works
Pictures (2), op.10 BB59 (trans. Zoltan Kocsis for 2 pianos)Jeux (trans. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet for 2 pianos)
The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps) (piano duet)
Artists
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)Francois-Frederic Guy (piano)
About
These two-piano transcriptions played by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and François-Frédéric Guy renew our experience of three great orchestral works, each of which was premiered in 1913.
Bavouzet’s version of Jeux is, like any fine transcription, far more than a memento of the original. Not only the trills and tremolandos needed on the piano to maintain sustained notes and chords, but also the interplay between the pianists, 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 the Two Pictures by Bartók, is often taken as his most Debussian composition thanks to his exploration of new scales and harmonic worlds. However, in bringing out its luxuriant and blossoming Hungarian aspects, Zoltán Kocsis emphasises rather its fully Bartókian character, which Bavouzet has conveyed to wide critical praise.
The two ‘pictures’ here provide a route from Debussy’s world of erotic reverie to Stravinsky’s of ancient ritual. The thundering and the bells of the two pianos in full and accurate fury make this version of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps hardly less forceful in the hands of these two dazzling and virtuosic pianists.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Bartok - 2 Pictures (arr Kocsis): 1. Viragzas
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2Bartok - 2 Pictures (arr Kocsis): II. A falu tanca
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3Debussy - Jeux (arr Bavouzet): Prelude
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4Debussy - Jeux (arr Bavouzet): Du fond, a gauche, apparaissent deux jeunes filles craintives
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5Debussy - Jeux (arr Bavouzet): Une des deux jeunes filles danse seule
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6Debussy - Jeux (arr Bavouzet): On apercoit le jeune homme au fond, a gauche, qui semble se cacher
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7Debussy - Jeux (arr Bavouzet): Ils dansent ensemble
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8Debussy - Jeux (arr Bavouzet): Le jeune homme a suivi cette derniere danse par curiosite
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9Debussy - Jeux (arr Bavouzet): Dans l'emportement de leur danse, ils n'ont pas remarque
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10Debussy - Jeux (arr Bavouzet): Pourtant, le jeune homme intervient en ecartant leurs tetes
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11Debussy - Jeux (arr Bavouzet): Ils dansent desormais tous les trois
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12Debussy - Jeux (arr Bavouzet): Une balle de tennis tombe a leurs pieds
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13Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part I Introduction
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14Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part I The Augurs of Spring, Dances of the Young Girls
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15Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part I Ritual of Abduction
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16Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part I Spring Rounds
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17Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part I Ritual of the River Tribes
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18Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part I Procession of the Sage
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19Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part I The Sage
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20Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part I Dance of the Earth
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21Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part II Introduction
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22Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part II Mystic Circles of the Young Girls
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23Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part II Glorification of the Chosen One
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24Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part II Evocation of the Ancestors
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25Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part II Ritual Action of the Ancestors
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26Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (piano 4 hands): Part II Sacrificial Dance
Europadisc Review
Bavouzet's arrangement of Jeux has already been recorded by Vladimir and Vovka Ashkenazy on Decca, but that performance didn't really do justice to the music's highly sophisticated poetic atmosphere. Happily, that's not the case here. Bavouzet and his duet partner François-Frédéric Guy find such colour and dynamic range at their fingertips that one barely misses the orchestral timbres of the original; textures and tempi are marvellously pliant. With its strange ménage à trois scenario of tennis players in a twilit park, Jeux is one of Debussy's most elusive scores, but nothing escapes the players here. Notwithstanding the still formidable challenges for the pianists, there's such an abundance of detail and clarity that the listener is constantly enraptured. This is a performance to make one hear the ballet with fresh ears.
Jeux was first performed on 15 May 1913 by the Diaghilev's Ballets russes at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, conducted by Pierre Monteux. Two weeks later, the same forces gave the première of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps, so the composer's four-hand arrangement is a natural choice of coupling here. Performances of the Sacre tend to emphasise either the primitive, the virtuosic or the purely musical aspects. In this performance, Bavouzet and Guy find a rare and ideal balance without ever hedging their bets. The tone is never forced but the expressive range is wide; they're no laggards either, but nor are they mere speed merchants. Dip in at any point during this performance and you'll find them right inside the music, both technically and emotionally. Again, the clarity is such that the ear is continually caught by fresh details. Among currently available accounts of the piano version, this new disc rates extremely high.
To complete this imaginative programme of works originally heard in 1913, Bavouzet and Guy open with a dazzlingly evocative performance of Bartók's contrasting Two Pictures, Op.10, in Zoltán Kocsis's brilliantly effective transcription for two pianos.
All in all, this is a breathtaking disc. There are excellent notes from Paul Griffiths and Bavouzet himself, and the recording – made at the splendid Arsenal in Metz – is in the demonstration class. It's a nice touch to have the disc dedicated to Pierre Boulez on his 90th birthday: he's clearly been a crucial musical influence for both performers. But it's also a tribute to Chandos's founder, the late Brian Couzens, that his label continues to deliver such staggering quality.
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