SCHOENBERG CHAMBER SYMPHONIES · FIVE PIECES OP.16 TWO PIANOS & PIANO FOUR-HANDS VERSIONS BY SCHOENBERG, BERG, WEBERN Matteo Fossi · Marco Gaggini pianos ARNOLD SCHOENBERG 1874-1951 Arnold Schoenberg Chamber Symphonies Op.9 & Op.38, Five Pieces Op.16 Chamber Symphonies Op.9 & Op.38, Five Pieces Op.16 Two pianos & Piano four-hands versions by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern Two pianos & Piano four-hands versions by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern 1. Chamber symphony No.1 Op.9 four-hands piano version by Alban Berg 21’36 A concert took place in the Musikverein auditorium in Vienna on 31 March 1913 that was to leave an indelible mark on the history of the Second Viennese School. The Five pieces for orchestra Op.16 programme of what soon became known as the Skandalkonzert included works by two pianos version by Anton Webern* Webern, Berg, Zemlinsky, Wagner and Mahler, as well as a performance of Arnold 2. I. Vorgefühle 2‘26 Schoenberg’s Kammersymphonie Op.9. A critic writing for the Boston Evening 3. II. Vergangenes 5‘50 Transcript described the evening in a review published on 13 April: “the result was 4. III. Farben 3’39 a commotion such as never occurred in a Vienna concert hall. Hisses, laughter, and 5. IV. Peripetie 2’43 applause made a bedlam. Between numbers little groups of disputants came within 6. V. Das obligate Rezitativ 3’54 an inch of blows; one of the composers shouted remarks and entered into the row; the conductor went on strike; an official boxed the ears of a man who had publicly Chamber Symphony No.2 Op.38 assaulted him; the police commissioner ordered the hall cleared, and the concert was two pianos version by Arnold Schoenberg** stopped before the final number”. The “cubist” composers had exceeded the Viennese 7. I. Adagio 7’06 audience’s capacity for understanding what was going on. 8. II. Con fuoco 11’39 The firstKammersymphonie , which was completed in 1906 and performed for the first time in 1907, certainly represented a major development in Arnold Schoenberg’s Matteo Fossi piano I*, piano II** stylistic evolution, as the composer himself readily admitted. “After having finished Marco Gaggini piano I**, piano II* the composition of the ‘Kammersymphonie’[…] I believed I had now found my own personal style of composing and that all problems […] had been solved and that a way had been shown out of the perplexities in which we young composers had been Total time: 58’57 Recording: January 2016, Piano&Forte Studio, Perugia, Italy involved through the harmonic, formal, orchestral and emotional innovations of Sound engineer, editing, mastering: Luca Ricci Richard Wagner” (“How One Becomes Lonely”, 1937). The innovative form of a Pianos: Fazioli F-278 symphony “condensed” in an unending cycle was the final chapter of a process that Piano technician: Diego Sciurpa began with Beethoven’s Große Fuge, and continued in Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy Artist photos: Filippo Basetti Cover: Birch Forest I, 1902 by Gustav Klimt and in the Sonata in B minor by Liszt. p & © 2017 Brilliant Classics Schoenberg was well aware of his role in the history of music, as were his various the program because he was not satisfied by the rehearsals with the two pianists disciples. Each new work became the subject of keen study because it opened up (Rudolf Serkin and Ernst Bachrich, no less). original perspectives and suggested new directions. Analysing a composition often Only a manuscript version of the score survives, kept at the Österreichische meant preparing transcriptions for smaller ensembles, thus helping it make its way Nationalbibliothek, where it has been largely neglected over the past century. into concert programs. The quantity and quality of these arrangements speaks A good transcription does not necessarily imply faithfully rewriting all the original eloquently for the deep sense of connection that prevailed within this circle of material in a different guise, but rather deciding, selecting and condensing. A work musicians. as dense as the Op.9 involves other problems for the arranger: only a close analysis The version for piano four hands of the firstKammersymphonie written by Alban of the subjects and the way they interact allowed Berg to distil the symphony for the Berg in 1914 is a particularly interesting case in point. Schoenberg had already keyboard, rendering its intricate thematic structure with due clarity. The manuscript prepared an arrangement for the same ensemble in 1907, but evidently was not reveals numerous corrections and second thoughts, and also speaks for Berg’s entirely satisfied with it. So in 1913 he officially commissioned his pupil to work on meticulous analysis of the main theme and the secondary subjects. There is no way a new transcription, urging him to complete it as soon as possible. Berg was slow of knowing what did not work out in the rehearsals of October 1920, though it is in getting down to it, however, because he was finishing the piano arrangement of certainly true that the transcription is technically highly demanding, despite Berg’s Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder and at the same time was working on his Three Pieces best intentions. for Orchestra. The war broke out and events so upset him that for quite some time The Five Pieces for Orchestra Op.16 were composed in the summer of 1909 at he was unable to concentrate on any job. Yet the correspondence between Berg and the behest of Richard Strauss, for the concert season at the Hofkapelle in Berlin. Schoenberg clearly reveals that at a certain point the initial spark kindled a real flame: Schoenberg conceived of these brief works as being “absolutely not symphonic, rather Berg hurled himself into the symphony and was totally captivated by it: “This isn’t a the opposite – without architecture, without structure. Simply a lively, uninterrupted work like any other. It’s a milestone in music, sufficient for an entire generation”, he interplay of colours, rhythms and states of mind”. The revolutionary significance wrote in a letter to Schoenberg dated 8 October 1914.1 of these orchestral aphorisms is astounding: their brevity is a given fact, yet they By the end of the year the transcription was ready and accompanied by a thematic are extraordinarily expressive. The works have features in common with the Three analysis of the symphony. Berg’s intent was to write an arrangement that could Pieces for Piano Op.11 (1909), the Three Pieces for Chamber Orchestra (1910), and actually be played on the piano, rather than a version that simply aimed at facilitating the Six Pieces for Piano Op.19 (1911). It was an approach also shared by Anton study and analysis. Though the ultimate goal was public performance, however, Webern, who actually preceded his teacher with the Five Movements Op.5 for String this transcription was not as successful as others written by Schoenberg’s pupils, to Quartet, also written in 1909. The idiom is polytonal, or pantonal, with the least the extent that it does not appear to have been performed in those years, or indeed possible thematic development – or arguably none at all. This was too futuristic for published. When in 1920 Ravel visited Vienna, a concert was organized in his honour Berlin’s conservative audience, and Strauss felt that he could not include the pieces in on 23 October, with a program that included the performance of this version. To the concert. They had to wait until 3 September 1912 for the premiere performance, Schoenberg’s great disappointment, however, Berg himself decided to remove it from conducted by Sir Henry Wood in London. In the meantime, undeterred by such rejections, Schoenberg still did his best to “to the object of his dreams” and extend the relationship “with what today appears have the Five Pieces performed in public. Once again the transcription proved to to be inanimate”. To reduce all this to the black and white of the piano could seem to be essential. In January 1912 Ferruccio Busoni’s three pupils, Louis Closson, Louis be the negation of the essence of the piece. Yet Webern, who was to become the great Grünberg and Eduard Steuermann (who later studied with Schoenberg) got together pioneer of this technique, found a compelling solution that avoided superficial effects with Anton Webern to play a version for two pianos, eight hands. Schoenberg’s and focused instead on making the chord agglomerates express sound in almost diaries relate how the four pianists got on as they rehearsed: it was total chaos, and skeletal terms that herald those of the sixth piece of Op.19. In this way the colour of not even the composer himself could work out whether or not they came in correctly. the chords could come to the surface like a pencil mark. Despite the somewhat ludicrous rehearsals and problems in getting his musical ideas The second Kammersymphonie Op.38 represents the alpha and the omega of across to Busoni’s students, the concert performance itself went well. The publisher Schoenberg’s stylistic evolution. Begun straight after Op.9, in 1906, and continued Peters of Leipzig decided in the meantime to publish the score for orchestra and on various occasions through to 1916, the work did not come to light until 1939, asked the composer to add titles for the five pieces. At first Schoenberg was reluctant five years after the composer had emigrated to the United States. He had already to oblige: “the music is wonderful precisely because it says things in a way that experimented with pantonality and dodecaphony, had revolutionized compositional allows someone who understands to grasp everything, and yet it also keeps its own technique, and at this point seemed more inclined to look back at the past and secrets, of the sort that one wouldn’t confess to oneself, unrevealed secrets. A title tonality, suggesting that all technical choices are the fruit of inner requirements. Glenn reveals. What’s more, what there was to be said has been said by the music. Why add Gould considered this apparently conservative symphony to be a radical creation, words?” (28 January 1912). In the end he decided on the following titles: (Vorgefühle a further development of Schoenberg’s style that was likely to have considerable [Premonitions], Vergangenes [Bygone], Farben [Colors], Peripetie [Climax], Das repercussions on future generations. obligate Rezitativ [The obligatory recitative]), which were deliberately indefinite and The original idea for the symphony envisaged the monumental third movement as left plenty of scope for individuality and interpretation. the conclusion, but in the end the composer chose to end the two movements with a Webern’s role was important not only in this stage of the dissemination of the Five dramatic conclusion in E flat minor. Pieces. In 1911 Schoenberg asked him to work on a two pianos/four hands version, The version Schoenberg himself arranged for two pianos was published in 1942, which was published by Peters in 1913 and became the official piano arrangement. three years after the original score for orchestra. For Schoenberg, transcription was a The main problem to be addressed in arranging this work was not so much a lifelong commitment, involving arrangements not only of his own compositions but question of structure as of timbre, which had to be adapted to the piano. In this also the works of other composers (suffice it to recall his version for orchestra of the sense the most representative and prodigious piece is unquestionably the third, Brahms Piano Quartet Op.25, or his transcriptions for small ensembles of works by Farben (Colors), for which Schoenberg, with painterly vision, added the subtitle Mahler and Strauss, and his arrangements of music from the baroque period). Op.38 “Summer Morning at the Lake”. Using Klangfarbenmelodie (tone colour melody) as is the only arrangement he wrote for two pianos. This may appear to have been a a compositional technique, he conjured up melody from the metamorphoses of timbre somewhat simpler undertaking than the other two works in this album, but in actual and chords in the orchestra. In 1911, in concluding his Theory of Harmony, the fact it involved more demanding compromises, especially in the second movement. author defined this new resource as a futuristic“ fantasy” that would bring man closer The dense texture of the piano part requires a tempo that is more moderate than the dramatic Con fuoco of the orchestral original. But here again the composer’s Arnold Schoenberg per sua stessa ammissione. “After having finished the composition transcription should not be read as an impossible imitation of the first version, but of the ‘Kammersymphonie’[…] I believed I had now found my own personal style rather as an alternative that opens up new perspectives. of composing and that all problems […] had been solved and that a way had been © Marco Gaggini shown out of the perplexities in which we young composers had been involved Translation by Kate Singleton through the harmonic, formal, orchestral and emotional innovations of Richard Wagner” (“How One Becomes Lonely”, 1937). La forma innovativa di sinfonia 1 The Berg-Schoenberg Correspondence: Selected Letters by Juliane Brand, Christopher Hailey, “condensata” in un ciclo senza soluzione di continuità, dove le tradizionali sezioni Donald Harris, W. W. Norton & Company (October 1, 1987), p.220 fluiscono una nell’altra, costituisce il tassello conclusivo di un percorso iniziato con la Grande Fuga di Beethoven, la Fantasia-Wanderer di Schubert e la Sonata in Si minore di Liszt. Schoenberg era consapevole del suo ruolo nella storia della musica e ciò era Arnold Schoenberg chiaro anche alla cerchia dei suoi discepoli. Ogni nuovo lavoro diventava perciò Kammersympohnie Op.9 & Op.38, Fünf Orchesterstücke Op.16 oggetto di profondo studio proprio perché apriva nuove prospettive e tracciava Versioni per due pianoforti e per pianoforte a quattro mani di Schoenberg, Berg, Webern nuovi sentieri da percorrere. Analizzare una composizione significava molto spesso preparare trascrizioni per formazioni ridotte così da poter eseguire con più agio e Il 31 Marzo del 1913 nella Sala del Musikverein di Vienna ebbe luogo un concerto che con maggior frequenza lavori che avrebbero impiegato troppo tempo ad entrare segnò una tappa cruciale nella storia della Seconda Scuola di Vienna. Il programma di nella programmazione delle sale concertistiche. La quantità e la qualità di questi quello che prese presto il nome di Skandalkonzert prevedeva, oltre a lavori di Webern, arrangiamenti è una testimonianza preziosa della profonda connessione esistente Berg, Zemlinsky, Wagner e Mahler, l’esecuzione della Kammersymphonie Op.9 di all’interno di questo gruppo di musicisti. Arnold Schoenberg. Un critico del Boston Evening Transcript descrisse la serata in un La versione per pianoforte a quattro mani della prima Kammersymphonie articolo del 13 Aprile: “the result was a commotion such as never occurred in a Vienna realizzata da Alban Berg nel 1914 rappresenta un caso particolare e affascinante. concert hall. Hisses, laughter, and applause made a bedlam. Between numbers little Schoenberg aveva già preparato un adattamento per questa formazione nel 1907, groups of disputants came within an inch of blows; one of the composers shouted ma evidentemente non ne era soddisfatto e nel 1913 incaricò ufficialmente l’allievo remarks and entered into the row; the conductor went on strike; an official boxed the di lavorare ad una nuova trascrizione, anche con una certa premura. Berg si ears of a man who had publicly assaulted him; the police commissioner ordered the hall mosse però a rilento: stava ultimando la riduzione pianistica dei Gurre-Lieder e cleared, and the concert was stopped before the final number”. I compositori “cubisti” contemporaneamente lavorava ai suoi Tre pezzi per orchestra. Poi venne la guerra erano andati oltre le capacità di comprensione del pubblico viennese. e gli avvenimenti lo sconvolsero a tal punto da impedirgli in un primo momento di La prima Kammersymphonie, ultimata nel 1906 ed eseguita per la prima volta pensare a qualsiasi lavoro. Dalla corrispondenza fra Berg e Schoenberg si capisce però già nel 1907, rappresentò in effetti un punto di svolta nell’evoluzione stilistica di che ad un certo punto si accese una scintilla: Berg si tuffò a capofitto nella sinfonia e ne rimase totalmente folgorato: “This isn’t a work like any other. It’s a milestone in il contrario – senza architettura, senza struttura. Semplicemente un interscambio music, sufficient for an entire generation”(Lettera di Berg a Schoenberg dell’8 ottobre vivo e ininterrotto di colori, ritmi e stati d’animo”. La portata rivoluzionaria di 1914)1. Alla fine dell’anno il lavoro fu ultimato e correlato da un’analisi tematica questi aforismi orchestrali è sconvolgente: la brevità è una necessità di partenza e si della sinfonia. L’intento di Berg era quello di realizzare una trascrizione eseguibile contrappone ad una espressività estrema. La strada è la stessa intrapresa con i Tre più o meno facilmente al pianoforte, non solo una versione utile all’analisi e allo pezzi per pianoforte Op.11 (1909), i Tre pezzi per Orchestra da Camera (1910), i Sei studio quindi, ma anche destinata ad esecuzioni pubbliche. Eppure questa trascrizione pezzi per pianoforte Op.19 (1911); ma è anche la stessa direzione presa proprio nel non ebbe lo stesso destino di tante altre preparate dagli allievi di Schoenberg: non si 1909, fin in anticipo sul maestro, da Anton Webern con i Cinque Movimenti Op.5 hanno notizie infatti di una sua esecuzione in quegli anni, né venne data alle stampe. per quartetto d’archi: un linguaggio politonale, o pantonale che dir si voglia, e una L’ultima occasione mancata fu a quanto pare la visita di Ravel a Vienna: nel concerto riduzione al minimo, se non la totale abolizione, dell’elaborazione tematica. Troppo organizzato in suo omaggio il 23 ottobre del 1920 fu prevista in un primo momento “futuro” musicale per un pubblico conservatore come quello di Berlino: Strauss non l’esecuzione di questa versione, ma fu Berg stesso a cancellarla dal programma, con se la sentì di eseguire i pezzi in concerto e la prima esecuzione dovette attendere il 3 grande disappunto di Schoenberg, perché non aveva ritenuto soddisfacenti le 2-3 settembre del 1912 (a Londra, con la direzione di Sir Henry Wood). prove fatte con i due pianisti (Rudolf Serkin ed Ernst Bachrich…). Nel frattempo però Schoenberg non si era arreso ai rifiuti dei direttori d’orchestra La partitura sopravvive solo in forma manoscritta (il volume è conservato alla e si era adoperato per presentare i suoi Cinque pezzi ugualmente in pubblico. Ancora Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) ed è rimasta ingiustamente poco frequentata nel una volta la trascrizione si rivela un veicolo indispensabile: nel gennaio del 1912 tre corso del Novecento. allievi di Ferruccio Busoni, Louis Closson, Louis Grünberg e Eduard Steuermann Fare una buona trascrizione non significa sempre riversare fedelmente tutto (all’epoca non ancora allievo di Schoenberg), si unirono ad Anton Webern per il materiale originario in una veste differente, significa invece fare delle scelte, eseguire una versione per due pianoforti ad otto mani. I diari di Schoenberg ci selezionare e condensare. Un lavoro così denso come l’Op.9 pone dei problemi in più riportano il resoconto del lavoro con i quattro pianisti: un caos totale in cui nemmeno al trascrittore: solo un’analisi approfondita dei temi e delle loro funzioni ha permesso il compositore riusciva a capire se le entrate erano giuste o sbagliate. Nonostante a Berg di sintetizzare alla tastiera la sinfonia rendendo con chiarezza la fitta struttura prove rocambolesche e difficoltà ad intendersi musicalmente con gli allievi di Busoni tematica. Il lavoro di cesello è testimoniato nel manoscritto non solo da numerose l’esecuzione in concerto andò piuttosto bene. L’editore Peters di Lipsia decise nel correzioni e ripensamenti, ma soprattutto da una precisa annotazione e messa a fuoco frattempo di pubblicare la partitura per orchestra e chiese all’autore di aggiungere dei dei temi principali e di quelli secondari. Impossibile sapere cosa non avesse funzionato titoli programmatici per i cinque pezzi. Schoenberg fu riluttante in un primo momento in quelle prove nell’ottobre del 1920: certo è che, malgrado gli sforzi di Berg, questa all’idea: “[…]la musica è meravigliosa proprio perché si può dire qualunque cosa trascrizione risulta tecnicamente molto impervia… in maniera tale che chi sa comprende tutto, e tuttavia si conservano i propri segreti, I 5 pezzi per orchestra Op.16 furono composti nell’estate del 1909 su richiesta di quelli che non si confessano neppure a se stessi, che non si svelano. Un titolo svela. Richard Strauss per la stagione di concerti della Hofkapelle di Berlino. Schoenberg Inoltre, quel che c’era da dire l’ha detto la musica. Perché aggiungere la parola?” (28 concepì queste brevi pagine come qualcosa di “assolutamente non sinfonico, piuttosto gennaio 1912). Si decise comunque a suggerire dei titoli (Vorgefühle [Premonitions], Vergangenes [Bygone], Farben [Colors], Peripetie [Climax], Das obligate Rezitativ apparentemente conservatrice un’opera radicale, un’ulteriore evoluzione dello stile di [The obligatory recitative]), volutamente indefiniti, che lasciano spazio a personali e Schoenberg con potenziali ripercussioni per le generazioni future. infinite interpretazioni. La sinfonia doveva concludersi nel progetto iniziale con un monumentale terzo Il ruolo di Webern non fu importante solo in questa fase della trasmissione dei movimento, ma l’autore preferì lasciare l’impianto a due movimenti e aggiungere una Cinque Pezzi. Su richiesta di Schoenberg nel 1911 aveva già cominciato a lavorare conclusione drammatica in Mi bemolle minore alla fine del secondo movimento. ad una versione per due pianoforti a quattro mani che verrà pubblicata da Peters nel La versione dell’autore stesso per due pianoforti fu pubblicata nel 1942, tre anni 1913 e che diventerà la versione pianistica ufficiale. dopo l’originale per orchestra. Schoenberg lavorò nel corso di tutta la vita alle Più che l’aspetto strutturale in questo lavoro si pone un problema timbrico al trascrizioni, sia di sue musiche che di musiche altrui (basti ricordare la versione trascrittore e di conseguenza all’esecuzione pianistica. Il pezzo più rappresentativo per orchestra del Quartetto con pianoforte Op.25 di Brahms, le trascrizioni per e magico in questo senso è sicuramento il terzo, Farben (Colors) cui Schoenberg piccoli ensembles di Mahler e Strauss o di composizioni barocche). L’Op.38 è aggiunse il sottotitolo “Summer Morning at the Lake”. Un quadro dello Schoenberg l’unica trascrizione dell’autore per la formazione a due pianoforti. Un compito pittore realizzato con la tecnica della Klangfarbenmelodie: la melodia nasce dalle apparentemente più semplice rispetto ai due altri lavori presenti in questo disco, ma metamorfosi timbriche accordali dell’orchestra. Nel 1911, concludendo il Manuale che in realtà porta a dei compromessi maggiori specie nel secondo movimento: la di Armonia, l’autore definiva questa nuova risorsa come una“ fantasia avveniristica” texture densa della scrittura pianistica obbliga ad una scelta di tempo più moderata che avrebbe avvicinato l’uomo “all’oggetto dei suoi sogni” ed avrebbe ampliato i rispetto al Con fuoco orchestrale dal carattere hollywoodiano. Ma ancora una volta “rapporti con ciò che oggi ci appare inanimato”. Riportare tutto ciò al bianco e nero la trascrizione d’autore non si pone come una impossibile imitazione dell’originale ma del pianoforte sembra la negazione stessa dell’essenza del pezzo. Eppure Webern, come una versione alternativa che rilegge l’opera da altre prospettive. che sarà grande sperimentatore di questa tecnica, senza ricercare effetti superficiali, © Marco Gaggini trova una soluzione efficacie limitandosi a far “suonare” gli agglomerati accordali (che preannunciano quelli del sesto pezzo dell’Op.19) quasi in maniera scheletrica, permettendo così al colore stesso degli accordi di emergere in superficie come un 1 The Berg-Schoenberg Correspondence: Selected Letters by Juliane Brand, Christopher Hailey, tratto di matita. Donald Harris, W. W. Norton & Company (October 1, 1987), p.220 La seconda Kammersymphonie (Op.38) rappresenta l’alfa e l’omega dell’evoluzione stilistica di Schoenberg. Iniziata di getto subito dopo l’Op.9, nel 1906, e ripresa più volte fino al 1916, essa rimarrà chiusa nel cassetto fino al 1939, quando l’autore era emigrato già da cinque anni negli Stati Uniti. Dopo aver sperimentato la pantonalità e la dodecafonia e aver rivoluzionato la tecnica compositiva Schoenberg sembra rivolgere lo sguardo al passato, alla tonalità, dimostrando che ogni scelta tecnica è dettata da un’esigenza interiore. Glenn Gould vedeva in questa sinfonia Matteo Fossi and Marco Gaggini first met in Two young pianists on a Brahms mission […] were able to match the rather linear Florence in 2004, when they were both attending density of the score with their commitment to sound. The original, overwhelming Pier Narciso Masi’s class. That highly rewarding orchestral tide is here transformed into a lean demonstration of pure content, where and fruitful experience drew to a conclusion mood and feelings speak through the power of logic. (Claudio Strinati, Il Venerdì di in 2008, by which time Fossi and Gaggini had Repubblica, 2009). discovered they shared the same vision about the role of piano music in our times. This realization [...] The two young performers reveal great professional skill and real musical taste led them to create a Piano Duo. in the way they have accomplished their well-conceived “project”. The transcriptions In 2005 the two performers came across the largely embody the same difficulties in performance as their orchestral counterparts, original transcription for two pianos of Johannes but the Duo resolve them brilliantly. (Riccardo Risaliti, Musica, 2009) Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. They immediately felt drawn by the score, which encouraged them The Brahms project was completed in 2012 with the release of an album (Decca) to get involved in further study and research, featuring the Sonata Op.34/b, the Variations on a Theme by Haydn Op.56/b and the seeking out similar arrangements that were Tragic Overture Op.81 in its four- hands piano version. likewise full of significance, history, and Fossi and Gaggini’s four hands piano repertoire also includes a rare Shostakovich aesthetic value. arrangement of his own 9th Symphony Op.70 (in a premiere Italian public The Duo’s initial “Twopianosproject” aimed performance), and some more widely known transcriptions such as Debussy’s La Mer. to extend the appeal of the piano beyond its Fossi and Gaggini aim to engage on a new project each year. 2013 was devoted to traditional repertoire by exploring the world of transcriptions by famous composers. Bartòk and Ligeti, and resulted in a 2-CD set released by Brilliant Classics (94737). This culminated in a successful album, released by Fenice Diffusione Musicale in It comprises the complete works for two pianos by the two Hungarian composers, 2009, of the two-piano versions of Brahms’s Fourth and First Symphonies (the latter including challenging transcriptions such as Bartòk’s Miraculous Mandarin and Suite was a world premier recording). A further recording that included the complete Op.4, and original masterpieces that comprise Bartòk’s Sonata for two pianos and set of the Brahms Symphonies, released by Universal Classic & Jazz, also met with percussion and Ligeti’s Three Pieces. widespread acclaim, as testified by the following press reports: Since 2007, Fossi and Gaggini have performed in prominent Festivals and concert seasons in Italy, with concerts at the Auditorium in Milan, the Concerti del Quirinale [...]A really sound, clear performance. Phrasing is mastered with noblesse. The series in Rome (broadcast live), the W. Walton Foundation (Ischia), and in France Fourth’s Finale is beautifully rendered in all its splendour and dramatic strength. (Paris), Austria (Wien, Arnold Schoenberg Center), Poland (Warsaw) and South (Luca Segalla, Musica, 2011) Korea (Seoul).