# Know any good piano duos? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2007, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362 "2007-12-09T05:55:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gibbons40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Gibbons40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gibbons40)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362/1 "2007-12-09T05:55:30Z")
I am finishing up grad school this June and my piano-playing classmate and myself were talking about learning a duo and performing it for our friends in June. Problem is, neither of us have played a duo before… stuck only to solo pieces. Anyone out there know some great duos? We aren’t interested in pieces for four hands… preferably pieces for 2 pianos. We like Romantic composers best, but we’re open to all. We’re both pretty skilled, but not prodigies or anything like that. On a scale of 1-10, with someone like Franz Liszt being a 10, we’re around a 7. Thanks for your help. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362/2 "2007-12-09T06:11:52Z")
I’ve been searching. Alexander Scriabin jumps to mind as a composer who should have a suitable piece. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362/3 "2007-12-09T07:16:29Z")
You should do a fantastic rendition of “Heart and Soul” sitting next to each other on the bench and everything 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362/4 "2007-12-09T07:54:26Z")
Stravinsky’s _The Rite of Spring_ arranged for two pianos. (Or, [one pianist on a player piano](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-rqOJDo0-8).) ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362/5 "2007-12-09T17:18:19Z")
You could try Piano Concertos - they are all published with the soloist part and the Orchestral parts reduced for second piano. For example: Grieg’s, Schumann’s (the only great thing he ever produced IMO); or in the classical side, Mozart’s no. 20 in d minor. ---
**Author:** ![Yesterdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/d07c76/32.png) [@Yesterdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yesterdog)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362/6 "2007-12-09T17:20:39Z")
[QUOTE=Gibbons40] I am finishing up grad school this June and my piano-playing classmate and myself were talking about learning a duo and performing it for our friends in June. Problem is, neither of us have played a duo before… stuck only to solo pieces. Anyone out there know some great duos? We aren’t interested in pieces for four hands… preferably pieces for 2 pianos. We like Romantic composers best, but we’re open to all. We’re both pretty skilled, but not prodigies or anything like that. On a scale of 1-10, with someone like Franz Liszt being a 10, we’re around a 7. Thanks for your help. [/QUOTE] Think of doing something original. For example, a friend and I did a Concerto in A minor (By Bach I think, it was a long time ago.) Well, it’s written for a horn and piano. We re-wrote the horn part to piano. It was well accepted. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362/7 "2007-12-09T17:24:24Z")
Ebony & Ivory? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362/8 "2007-12-09T17:56:56Z")
It can be played on one piano, but I see no reason you couldn’t play it on two, but Schubert’s Fantasia is my absolute favorite piano duet. It’s absolutely gorgeous. ---
**Author:** ![Emeria](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@Emeria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emeria)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2007, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362/9 "2007-12-10T02:23:57Z")
Just off the top of my head … I did some two-piano chamber music when I was in music school a couple years ago. There’s always the option of playing a regular duet on two pianos, this may broaden your options a bit. Many, many composers wrote duets … Schubert composed bunches of duets, and I think he also did some two-piano works as well. This is a nice option since it gives you more leeway in making choices, and makes finding original works easier, plus you don’t have to share a piano with someone else (something I never really liked due to pedalling issues and so on. We played all our four-hand music on two pianos no matter what the composer called for, and just switched top-to-bottom every movement or something). Alternatively, if there’s one in particular you like, one could play a concerto solo part with the other playing the orchestral reduction, but this is not nearly as much fun since one is the “star” instead of being two equals. There are also plenty of famous orchestral works arranged for two pianos. Be careful when you’re looking for music that you don’t get an arrangement, if you’re dead set against it. If you’re not set in stone on this, a lot of works have been “arranged” by someone other than the composer for two pianos. If you’re preferring to stick to things originally composed to two pianos, I know Mendelssohn, Schumann, Rachmaninov wrote a bunch of nice stuff for two pianos, Schubert for sure and he also wrote duets, Mozart has two-piano sonatas separate from any concerti … there are others that I’m completely blanking out on, I’m certain. Debussy’s got duets as well that are quite nice, like the Petit Suite, but a bit too late if you just want to stick to the Romantic era. Staying later and in France, Poulenc, Milhaud (look for Scaramouche - it’s a lot of fun!), and Stravinsky, who I see was mentioned above. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362/10 "2007-12-10T02:46:06Z")
The Rhapsody in Blue piano duet is pretty nice. The solo piano version has parts that are so hard they are bordering unplayable but with two pianos, the workload is lightened considerably. ---
**Author:** ![Olive\_The\_Other\_Reindeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Olive\_The\_Other\_Reindeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olive_The_Other_Reindeer)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2007, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-good-piano-duos/429362/11 "2007-12-10T03:13:50Z")
One piano, or two? According to Hubby (who knows these things), there’s a huge library of works for both. Accompanied by orchestra, or not? Still, he says tons of things available. Which era are you interested in? That may narrow down your search some. He says more 20TH century works than before that. Nothing specific, but give him something to work with. Olive