Russian Ballet Transcriptions for Four Hands and Two Pianos

Cyprien Katsaris invites the great Japanese pianist Etsuko Hirose to shed new light on excerpts from the most famous Russian ballets arranged here for four hands and two pianos. The masterpieces recorded here resonate with everyone (or almost everyone): The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky, Gayaneh by Khachaturian, Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor and, as a world premier, Stravinsky’s Firebird, played here with brio and passion by the two pianists. These pearls of the Russian musical canon came inevitably to be arranged in various forms for the piano, allowing pianists, amateur and professional alike, to enjoy them to the full.