The famous one: Schubert’s composition for piano four hands, his Marche militaire Op. 51 No. 1 (later re-arranged for various combinations of instruments, up to a full symphony orchestra). Which was posted today by the Classical PIANO Geniuses (their spelling) group: in a wonderful warm performance by Daniel Barenboim & Lang Lang, along with three other performances, of which one — by Salim & Sivan (with the Israeli Symphony Orchestra sitting behind them, and a symphony audience in front of them, so it was part of a larger program) is brilliant, great fun; and the video is worth watching just to see Salim’s body language and facial expressions.
You can watch B & LL on YouTube here. And S & S on YouTube here.
(A bit more on Salim & Silver below.)
I had in fact intended to write about this four-hand piano piece before; I’ve never played it, but it’s a great favorite of mine, a masterpiece of joy.
What I was not prepared for was what happened a few bars into the B & LL performance: I began to weep with some mixture of sadness and joy, and when S & S began, I had tears running down my face.
Then it occurred to me that my joints were singing with pain, which I’d put down to the sudden ferocious heat of the day (in the low 90sF). But then I checked Weather Underground, and the air pressure had just nosedived. So the pain and the depression were barometric. And my plans for the day were toast.
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