Search - Dvorak, Brahms, Grieg :: Dances for Four Hands

Dvorak, Brahms, Grieg
Dances for Four Hands
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Classical

Track Listings (18) - Disc #1
1. Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 1 in g minor
2. Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 2 in d minor
3. Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 3 in F Major
4. Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 4 in f minor
5. Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 5 in f-sharp minor
6. Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 6 in D-flat Major
7. Dvor?k Slavonic Dance No. 1 in C Major (Furiant)
8. Dvor?k Slavonic Dance No. 2 in e minor (Dumka)
9. Dvor?k Slavonic Dance No. 3 in A-flat Major (Polka)
10. Dvor?k Slavonic Dance No. 4 in F Major (Sousedsk?)
11. Dvor?k Slavonic Dance No. 5 in A Major (Skocn?)
12. Dvor?k Slavonic Dance No. 6 in D Major (Sousedsk?)
13. Dvor?k Slavonic Dance No. 7 in c minor (Skocn?)
14. Dvor?k Slavonic Dance No. 8 in g minor (Furiant)
15. Grieg Norwegian Dance No. 1 Allegro marcato-Cantabile-Animato
16. Grieg Norwegian Dance No. 2 Allegretto tranquillo e grazioso-Allegro-Tempo I
17. Grieg Norwegian Dance No. 3 Allegro moderato alla Marcia
18. Grieg Norwegian Dance No. 4 Allegro molto

CD Details

All Artists: Dvorak, Brahms, Grieg, Kipnis-Kushner Duo
Title: Dances for Four Hands
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Palatine Recordings
Original Release Date: 11/12/2001
Release Date: 11/12/2001
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Classical
Styles: Chamber Music, Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830), Instruments, Keyboard
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 689809000123

Synopsis

Album Description

The KIPNIS - KUSHNER PIANO DUO was formed in 1995 and made its debut at the New York Musicians? Club, "The Bohemians." Appearances during subsequent seasons have included concerts in California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, Washington State, and, Washington, D. C. The Duo has been heard in broadcasts over New York?s WQXR and WNYC, Boston?s WGBH, Pittsburgh?s WQED, Los Angeles?s KUSC, and seen on cable television in New York. Additionally, the four-hand duo has participated in outreach programs and master classes at schools in over ten states. The October, 1997, issue of Clavier magazine featured the pianists? outreach activities with a cover story. The Kipnis/Kushner Duo was the only North American ensemble invited to perform at the Music in Old Crakow Festival in August, 1997, and in 1998, the Duo toured Brazil, in 2000 Germany. Further information on the Duo may be found on the Kipnis web site under people.mags.net/kipnis/ikipnis.html

CD Reviews

Sparkling Piano Four-Hand Dances (Brahms, Dvorák, Grieg)

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 07/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"From its founding in 1995 up to the untimely death of Igor Kipnis in 2002 the Kipnis-Kushner Duo (Igor Kipnis and Karen Kushner playing at one piano) set a new standard for deeply felt, musicianly piano duo performance and recording. Sadly they made only a few recordings including a terrific Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes set coupled with a delicious Ravel 'Mother Goose' Suite in its original guise for piano four-hands. I'm somewhat surprised that this present issue had not until now been reviewed as it is a sterling example of the duo's work.

The piano duo was in its ascendancy in the late 19th century before the invention of mechanical reproduction of music and when many, if not most, educated people played the piano. Not only were all the core repertoire orchestral works available in piano duo form -- I spent much of my youth and early adulthood playing over the Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms symphonies with a piano duet partner -- many pieces were written specifically for piano duo. The pieces here were all originally for piano four-hands, only later being orchestrated or recast for other ensembles. They were all wildly popular in their day.

There have been any number of recorded performances of the complete Brahms Hungarian Dances, the Dvorák Slavonic Dances and the Grieg Norwegian Dances. I have heard duos slog through the repertoire and others, like the Köhn-Matthies Duo (on Naxos) bring lilt and insight to the Brahms pieces. Probably most popular in recent years have been the recordings of the Labèque Sisters duo (which frankly I have found a bit overdramatic and often a bit clangy). The works played here (with Kipnis and Kushner trading off primo and secondo) are given exceptionally musicianly and sparkling performances with an uncanny ability to play the various national rhythms in these works as if they had been born to them. (For instance, I grew up in a Czech-settled community in the US and heard Bohemian music daily and Dvorák frequently. I can vouch for K-K's ability to get, say, the tricky cross-accents of the 'furiant' [Nos. 1 & 8] exactly right. ) The performances have the added benefit of the warm and deep tone of an 1895 Steinway in marvelous condition, all captured in lifelike sound by recording engineer Robert Gwynn.

This CD gets my highest recommendation.

Scott Morrison"