Piano Music for Four Hands Vol. 7

Abstract

Allow me to point out, at the risk of being obvious, that works for piano four hands differ in several important senses from works for two pianos or piano duo: First, in the former, one pianist plays all the high notes and the other all the low notes, and they negotiate over the notes in between. Second, in the former, the pianists are sitting so close together that they are intimately aware of each other’s body movements, so precise matching of phrases is possible, much more so than is usual with pianists sitting at separate pianos and who may or may not even be able to see each other as they play. So it was important for me to determine if this is truly a four-hand one piano performance, and I can assure you on the evidence of both my ears and careful listening to the stereo perspective that it is. This is easy to determine because a piano duo recording would have the high notes from one side and the low notes from the other.