Fantasie In F Minor Op 103 D 940

The Fantasie in F Minor, Op. 103, is Franz Schubert's most-often performed piano duet and is considered one of the great masterpieces of ensemble piano repertoire. Schubert completed the Fantasie in 1828, just a short time before his death later that year. The work demonstrates his mature style and is filled with some of his best writing. Its four connected movements contain lovely and enticing melodies, dramatic gestures in French overture style, a brilliant scherzo and trio, and a virtuosic fugue.

The Fantasie in F minor, Op. 103, is Franz Schubert's most-often performed piano duet and is considered one of the great masterpieces of ensemble piano repertoire. Schubert completed the Fantasie in 1828, just a short time before his death later that year. The work demonstrates his mature style and is filled with some of his best writing. Its four connected movements contain lovely and enticing melodies, dramatic gestures in French overture style, a brilliant scherzo and trio, and a virtuosic fugue. Also included is an outstanding CD recording from the Naxos label.

Felix Mendelssohn's Allegro brillant, Op. 92, for one piano, four hands, was written in 1841 and dedicated to Clara Schumann. The expressive Andante theme alternates between the Secondo and Primo, segueing into the virtuosic Allegro assai vivace movement with a rush of scales. All fingering, metronome marks, and notational omissions have been supplemented by the editors. Allegro brillant is considered one of the most challenging pieces in the entire piano duet repertoire.

A thematic exploration of Schubert's style, applied in readings of his instrumental and vocal literature by international scholars.

During the latter part of his life, Brahms wrote only sets of relatively short pieces. With their formal and stylistic perfection, they are among the most valuable of the late-Romantic additions to piano repertoire. Included in this edition are 30 pieces by Brahms, preceded by a helpful introduction which contains definitions of the ballade, rhapsody, capriccio and intermezzo.

(Piano Duet). Nikolai Kapustin first composed the Sinfonietta op. 49 for orchestra. He later arranged the popular four-handed piano version for a concert in the Ministry of Culture of the USSR. It is written in a medium level of difficulty, so that it is well playable even for advanced pianists.

The Six Easy Pieces arranged by German composer, conductor, and organist Christian Gottlob Neefe (1748--1798) are inspired by the original vocal/orchestral score of The Magic Flute. These pieces are idiomatic piano duets (one piano, four hands) that remain faithful to the original composition. Filled with wit and charm, they contain many of the memorable elements of the opera: Papageno's magic bells, gentle love duets, tenderhearted trios, and lively arias. Based on the 1793 first edition, Neefe's dynamics, articulations, and phrase marks have been preserved. Editorial suggestions have been given in parentheses and footnotes to aid in performance. Titles: * No. 1 ("Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" / "Yes, I am the bird catcher") * No. 2 ("Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen" / "In men who know the feeling of love") * No. 3 ("Soll ich dich, Theurer, nicht mehr sehn?" / "Shall I, dear one, never see you again?") * No. 4 ("Das klinget so herrlich" / "That sounds so pretty") * No. 5 ("Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" / "A sweetheart or a little wife") * No. 6 ("Klinget, Glöckchen, klinget!" / "Ring, little bells, ring!")

An exploration of the world’s most famous and challenging song cycle, Schubert's Winter Journey (Winterreise), by a leading interpreter of the work, who teases out the themes—literary, historical, psychological—that weave through the twenty-four songs that make up this legendary masterpiece. Completed in the last months of the young Schubert’s life, Winterreise has come to be considered the single greatest piece of music in the history of Lieder. Deceptively laconic—these twenty-four short poems set to music for voice and piano are performed uninterrupted in little more than an hour—it nonetheless has an emotional depth and power that no music of its kind has ever equaled. A young man, rejected by his beloved, leaves the house where he has been living and walks out into snow and darkness. As he wanders away from the village and into the empty countryside, he experiences a cascade of emotions—loss, grief, anger, and acute loneliness, shot through with only fleeting moments of hope—until the landscape he inhabits becomes one of alienation and despair. Originally intended to be sung to an intimate gathering, performances of Winterreise now pack the greatest concert halls around the world. Drawing equally on his vast experience performing this work (he has sung it more than one hundred times), on his musical knowledge, and on his training as a scholar, Bostridge teases out the enigmas and subtle meanings of each of the twenty-four lyrics to explore for us the world Schubert inhabited, his biography and psychological makeup, the historical and political pressures within which he became one of the world’s greatest composers, and the continuing resonances and affinities that our ears still detect today, making Schubert’s wanderer our mirror.

These two volumes each contain six captivating duets in a variety of styles including blues, jazz, ragtime and more! Both the primo and secondo parts are written at the same level of difficulty.