Per Pianoforte A Quattro Mani (O Due Pianoforti). Par CALLIGARIS SERGIO. Sergio Calligaris was born in Rosario (1941), Argentina. He is one of the last musicians to incarnate the traditional 19th century figure of pianist, teacher and composer, inaugurated at the beginning of the 19th century by Muzio Clementi and carriedon after that by a sequence of famous names that the history of music has handed down to us. As a pianist, he began to give public performances at the age of 13, making his debut in his home town Rosario. Following this success, he embarked upon an extremely busy career as a soloist, giving numerous recitals in Buenos Aires and other citiesin Argentina. He continued to take advanced lessons with eminent exponents of the most prestigious international piano schools. In 1974 he became an Italian citizen and settled in Rome, teaching piano as principal instrument at the S. Pietro a Majella StateConservatory in Naples, the Luisa DAnnunzio Conservatory in Pescara and the Alfredo Casella Conservatory in Aquila. As a composer, he began - at just 9 years of age - to study in the rigorous school of Paul Hindemith, under the guidance of Father Luis Machado, from whom he inherited a love of counterpoint and a strong taste for harmony. He took a diploma incomposition, counterpoint and fugue at the age of 16 at the Amigos del Arte Society in Rosario, going on in 1964 to do an advanced course in 12-tone counterpoint at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The catalogue of his compositions, which has nowreached Op. 55, encompasses a huge range of instrumental/vocal chamber music and symphonic works: a vast and articulated catalogue, in which Sergio Calligaris’s composition expresses its inspiration through the dramatic development of a dialecticalcontrast between the two natures of the composer’s personality - the elegiac and the dithyrambic - which confront and interact with each other giving rise to artistic outcomes of a deeply moving nature. / Niveau : Intermédiaire à Avancé / Répertoire / Piano 4 Mains

Arrangement for Piano Fourhands-In the 19th century arrangements for Piano four-hands were usually versions which people played at home if the works could not be heard in concert. In cases such as these Brahms did not however just make functional versions butcreatively transcribed his works for the piano. As the composer he allowed himself greater freedom than arrangers for publishers did. In this form his arrangements greatly contributed to the success of his works in musical life inthe 19th century. It is on account of their creativity that Brahms’ arrangements have attracted new interest in musical circles over the last few decades. This Urtext edition of the Symphonies nos. 1 and 2 for piano four handsoffers a scholarly musical text following the recently published volume in the Brahms Complete Edition.

Pour récitant et piano à quatre mains-During the visit to Brive-la-Gaillarde in 1940 Poulenc sketched a little piece for the children of his cousins: Sophie Sylvie Benoit Florence and Delphine Périer Yvan Alain Marie-Christine and Marguerite-MarieVillotte and their two friends Marthe Bosredon and André Lecoeur. This took the form of a musical background to Jean de Brunhoff's popular illustrated children's story about Babar a baby elephant whose mother is killed by ahuntsman. Fortunately Babar meets a kind elderly lady who dresses him in a fine suit and gives him an impressive motor-car.However Babar feels homesick for his forests and is pleased when his cousins Arthur and Celeste find him and needs no persuasion to go home with them. Back in the forest where the King of the Elephants has eaten a poisonous mushroom Babar is elected to succeed as King. He marries Celeste and the last we hear of him isthinking of a rosy future as he dreamily looks up at a marvellously star-filled sky.Poulenc's score to which he returned and completed in 1945 is for a narrator and a Piano so written that the individualsections offer the pianist a number of self-contained descriptive pieces such as a Lullaby a Reverie a Galop a Nocturne and so on. Indeed some of Poulenc's finest Piano music isfound in these charming pages.In 1962 Jean Françaix made an orchestral version and Barbar has been enjoyed by children of all ages all over the world. An English translation of the text was made by Nelly Rieu.Thisparticular edition is arranged for Narrator and Piano duet (1 Piano 4 hands) and a separate insert with English translation is included.

Wilhelm Ganz (1833-1914) was a German musician who escaped from the continent in 1848 and spent the rest of his life in London. As a violinist and conductor he worked alongside Berlioz and Wagner and held a singingprofessorship at the Guildhall School of Music. Despite being well-regarded in his lifetime his compositional work has largely fallen into obscurity over the last century.Ganz’s Op.12 is Qui Vive(c.1860-70): inspired by the Galop a lively country dance but intended for concert performance. It is scored for a Piano Duet and keeps the pianists entertained by modulating several times through closely linked keys based around Eb Major.

Le Bal is the last of a dozen miniatures entitled Jeux D'Enfants (Games For Children) written by Bizet in 1871 for Piano Duet. A vibrant and exciting short piece that along with the rest of the set explores themesplay and invention.

POD Piano Duet Accompaniment-The Holy Mountain is a work by composer John Joubert. This is the accompaniment to the SATB Chorus for one Piano four hands. A full performance lasts around 10 minutes.