Bracha Eden & Alexander Tamir: Complete Decca Recordings

Eden & Tamir met in 1951 as fellow students at what is now the Jerusalem Academy of Music & Dance. Both were students of Alfred Schroeder, who had himself been a pupil of and teaching assistant to Artur Schnabel, with whom he also played piano duets. It was Schroeder who encouraged his two young pupils to play together. Their careers received a significant boost in 1958 when the duo appeared on a TV program hosted by Ed Sullivan featuring up-and-coming Israeli talent – which included a 13-year-old violin prodigy named Itzhak Perlman (recent winner of the Gramophone Lifetime Achievement Award). This new edition of their complete recordings for Decca encompasses the majority of works at the heart of the piano duo canon. When their Decca debut LP (CD1) was first issued, the famously hard-to-please High Fidelity magazine piano critic Harris Goldsmith positively raved about their Rachmaninov, Milhaud, Poulenc and Lutosławski, “It is obviously first-classs … entirely fresh and spontaneous. Individually, the pianism sounds brilliant and limpid at the same time; in terms of ensemble playing, it has extraordinary give and take.” It is also worth mentioning that the duo were the first to perform Lutosławski’s Paganini Variations outside Poland. Other highlights in the set include their “clairvoyant teamwork” in Brahms’ Hungarian Dances & Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances, Stravinsky’s arrangement for four hands of The Rite of Spring, Poulenc’s Two-Piano Concerto; Satie’s Trois morceaux en forme de poire, Schubert’s Grand Duo, their survey of the then-rarely performed Liszt Opera paraphrases for two pianos and their final Decca project encompassing all of Mozart’s works for two pianos or four hands.

Tracklist:
CD1
RACHMANINOV Suite No.2 for 2 Pianos*; MILHAUD Scaramouche Suite for 2 Pianos; POULENC Piano Sonata for 4 Hands; LUTOSLAWSKI Variations on a Theme by Paganini

CD2
BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F minor arr. as Sonata for 2 Pianos*; SAINT-SAENS Variations for Two Pianos on a theme of Beethoven*

CD3
BARTOK Sonata for 2 Pianos & Percussion (w/ James Holland & Tristan Fry)*; POULENC Sonata for Two Pianos

CD4
BRAHMS: Hungarian Dance Nos. 1–10 for Piano Duet*; DVORAK 8 Slavonic Dances for Piano Duet* (first time Dvorak issued as complete on CD)

CD5
STRAVINSKY 5 Easy Pieces for Piano Duet*; Three Easy Pieces for Piano Duet*; Le Sacre du Printemps – Version for Piano Duet (published 1913)

CD6
“Two Piano Encores”
RACHMANINOV Suite No.1 for 2 Pianos – I. Barcarolle; KHACHATURIAN Three Pieces for Piano Duet – III. Fantastic Waltz; WEINBERGER Schwanda the Bagpiper arr. Weinberger for two pianos – Polka & Fugue; POULENC L’embarquement pour Cythere, valse-musette for 2 Pianos; SCHUBERT Rondo for Piano Duet in D, D.608; BRAHMS 16 Waltzes op.39 nos. 9–11, 15 & 16; ARENSKY Suite No.1 for Two Pianos – Waltz; Schumann 6 Studien in kanonischer Form, op. 56 arr. for 2 Pianos – II-IV

CD7
POULENC Concerto for 2 Pianos & Orchestra (OSR/Comissiona); DEBUSSY Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune – for piano duet*; SATIE Trois morceaux en forme de poire*; DEBUSSY Petite Suite, L.65 for Piano Duet*; BRITTEN Scottish Ballad, op.26 for Two Pianos & Orchestra (OSR/Comissiona); Introduction & Rondo alla Burlesca op.23 no.1; Mazurka Elegiaca op.23 no.2

CD8
RACHMANINOV Suite No.1 for 2 Pianos*; Prelude in C sharp minor*; Six Duets*

CD9
LISZT Reminiscences de Norma, S.394 (after Bellini)*; Fantasy on “Die Ruinen von Athen”, S.389 (after Beethoven)*; Reminiscences de Don Juan, S.418 (after Mozart)*; Soirees Musicales (after Rossini) – IX. La Danza*

CD10
SCHUBERT Introduction & variations on an original theme in B flat, D.608*; Grand Duo Sonata in C major, D.812* DELIBES: Coppélia + French Opera Overtures

CD11-12
MOZART COMPLETE WORKS FOR TWO PIANOS & PIANO-FOUR-HANDS
Sonatas K19d, K358, K381, K497, K448, K521; Andante & Variations K501; Fugue in G minor, K401; Fugue in C minor K426; Larghetto & Allegro in E flat; Allegro & Andante in G, K537; Adagio & Allegro in F minor, K594*; Fantasia in F minor K608*