Four hands
Piano four-hands was more than a musical genre in the nineteenth century: it was an act of sociability just as much as a means of propaganda and teaching. And for publishers, it was lucrative and profitable. How many people realise that Wagner's operas first arrived in Paris in that form, or that, for many aristocrats, “four hands” represented the possibility of approaching great personalities of the music world? The practice gave rise to a wide diversity of formulas: arrangements of operas, pieces for children, dance music or ambitious sonatas. From the brilliant variations written by Henselt, Moscheles and Chopin to the humorous quadrilles of Chabrier and Messager; from the skilful sonatas of Boëly, Onslow and Gouvy to the “scènes d’enfants” composed by Fauré and Ravel, a century of intimacy and amazing encounters was expressed through a repertoire in which transcription for orchestra, in the case of Chabrier's España or Ravel's La Valse, sometimes had the appearance of a virtuosic tour de force.
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Related works
Duo pour pianoforte à quatre mains en fa majeur
Hyacinthe JADIN
Sonata for piano four hands no. 1 in E minor op. 7
George ONSLOW
Sonata for piano four hands no. 2 in F minor op. 22
George ONSLOW
Piano Sonata for four hands in E flat major
Charles GOUNOD
Variations sur un thème des Capulets et Montaigus de Bellini
Louise FARRENC
Sonate pour piano à quatre mains en fa mineur op. 17
Alexandre-Pierre-François BOËLY
Trois Marches pour piano à quatre mains op. 40
Charles-Valentin ALKAN
Première Suite op. 11
Jules MASSENET
Sonate pour piano à quatre mains en ut mineur op. 49
Théodore GOUVY
Un momento d'allegrezza
Théodore DUBOIS
Jeux d’enfants
Georges BIZET
Diane, ouverture pour piano à quatre mains
Claude DEBUSSY
Le Carnaval d'Athènes
Louis-Albert BOURGAULT-DUCOUDRAY
Fantaisie brillante sur Carmen
Charles BILLEMA Georges BIZET
Voix du printemps
Marie JAËLL
Souvenirs de Bayreuth
Gabriel FAURÉ André MESSAGER
Orientale
Fernand de LA TOMBELLE
Petite Suite
Claude DEBUSSY
Six Pièces romantiques op. 55
Cécile CHAMINADE
Trois Préludes sur des airs irlandais
Reynaldo HAHN
Berceuse
Mel BONIS
Le Vert-Galant
Cécile CHAMINADE
Année passée
Jules MASSENET
Dolly
Gabriel FAURÉ
Pavane
Mel BONIS
Morceaux en forme de poire
Erik SATIE
Reflets d'Allemagne op. 28
Florent SCHMITT
Le Songe de Cléopâtre
Mel BONIS
Six Valses-caprice
Mel BONIS
Dix Esquisses pour piano à quatre mains
Théodore DUBOIS
Six Épigraphes antiques
Claude DEBUSSY
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publication date : 31/12/25
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