Piano Duo Trenkner Speidel

Piano Duo Trenkner / Speidel - Dvorák: Symphony No. 9, Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 (2017)

Piano Duo Trenkner / Speidel - Dvorák: Symphony No. 9, Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 (2017)
WEB | FLAC (tracks) - 250 MB | 01:20:29
Genre: Classical | Label: MDG Gold

Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 is one of classical music’s all-time greatest hits. It was composed and premiered in New York in 1893, which is why – but not only why – it is known as the “New World Symphony.” On this recording, which also includes the first cycle of the equally popular Slavonic Dances, the Piano Duo Trenkner / Speidel once again demonstrates the great advantages and fascinating rhythmic verve offered by reductions for piano four hands. Trimmed of the comfortable and sumptuous sound of the large orchestra, Dvořák’s genial treatment of motives of Bohemian folk character shines in even greater glory.
Duo Trenkner-Speidel - Rimsky-Korsakov, Honegger, Ravel: Transcriptions for Piano 4 Hands (2010)

Duo Trenkner-Speidel - Rimsky-Korsakov, Honegger, Ravel: Transcriptions for Piano 4 Hands (2010)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 68:39 | 238 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: MDG | Catalog: MDG3301616

Unlike many piano arrangements, all these pieces have been arranged by the composers themselves for four hands. The Piano Duo Trenkner-Speidel presents these arrangements in authentic interpretations on a sonorous Steinway concert grand piano from 1901. Evelinde Trenkner and Sontraud Speidel have recorded a whole series of CDs on MDG exhibiting their perfect symbiosis.
Sontraud Speidel, Evelinde Trenkner - Johann Sebastian Bach: Orchestral Suites, arr. for 2 Pianos by Max Reger (2000)

Sontraud Speidel, Evelinde Trenkner - Johann Sebastian Bach: Orchestral Suites, arr. for 2 Pianos by Max Reger (2000)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 491 Mb | Total time: 73:27+74:46 | Scans included
Classical | Label: MDG | # MDG 330 1006-2 | Recorded: 2000

Most piano duet arrangements were meant for the home rather than the concert hall. When you sight-read orchestral reductions at the piano, your physical involvement with the material “fills in” the missing instrumental color. Even with skillful four-hand “de-orchestrations” like Max Reger’s of the Bach Orchestral Suites, listeners run the risk of “registral fatigue”. In the main, the Speidel-Trenkner piano duo circumvents these limitations through canny pianistic means. In the C major Suite’s Forlane, for example, the oboe’s hornpipe-like melody bounces on a featherweight accompaniment.
Sontraud Speidel, Evelinde Trenkner - J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos arr. for 2 Pianos by Max Reger (1996)

Sontraud Speidel, Evelinde Trenkner - J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos arr. for 2 Pianos by Max Reger (1996)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 01:44:38 | 375 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: MDG | Catalog: MDG 330 0635-2

If you know and love the Brandenburgs, seriously consider listening to these renditions for piano duo. In the imagination place yourself in the days before recording; hearing these peices in that way will give an idea of what it must have been like to know Bach, to want to hear Bach, to have the muscial skills to play Bach, but have no chamber orchestra at your disposal. A piano or two would do, if you had Reger's transcriptions. Why wait years for the next concert, if you could play them today? And because Reger loved Bach each piece has an air of homage.