Two Pianos as a Home Orchestra

 by Maureen Buja

With the normalising of a piano at home in the 19th century, music opened up to the masses in a way never anticipated in the 18th century. One of the results of this was music that would have normally been heard only rarely and only in a concert hall, as played by an orchestra, was reduced for performance by groups at home, usually based around a piano.

Gustav Holst

By the 1920s, much of this home music-making had been supplanted by the home radio. Recordings also became available, and with a record player, you could have your own orchestra in your drawing room.

In the early 20th century, however, the piano still held sway, and in this new recording by the piano duo of Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman, one major work by Gustav Holst and two by Edward Elgar are presented. The transcriptions of Holst’s The Planets, Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, and the Salut d’Amour give us something back of music in the home.

Gustav Holst’s suite for large orchestra, The Planets, brought Holst’s name into the spotlight. Although admired by his musical friends, few others knew of this Cheltenham-born composer.

The original layout of The Planets was for two pianos, and it was only orchestrated later. Holst suffered from neuritis, an inflammation of the nervous system, and it was easier for him to compose for two pianos than work through a large symphonic score.

With the success of the orchestral version, particularly in a time when astrology and the study of the stars were in fashion, Holst’s two-piano version was set aside and only published some 30 years after the orchestral premiere.

In the two-piano version, the big works, such as Mars, seem too light, but the lighter movements, such as Venus, The Bringer of Peace or Neptune, The Mystic, come across beautifully. One of the particularly good movements in the two-piano version is the flight of Mercury, The Winged Messenger.

Gustav Holst: The Planets – III. Mercury, The Winged Messenger (Ben Schoeman, Tessa Uys pianos)

Edward Elgar

The other English composer who rose from relative obscurity to international fame was Edward Elgar. As in the case of Holst, the piano transcriptions of Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, and the Salut d’Amour have largely been ignored with the greater fame of their orchestral versions. Whereas Holst made his transcriptions as part of his compositional process, Elgar’s works were done by other hands. Introduction and Allegro was transcribed by Otto Singer II, who made his name with his piano transcriptions of Bruckner’s symphonies. Introduction and Allegro (1905) was written for the string section of the London Symphony Orchestra, with Elgar conducting the premiere.

The second Elgar work, Salut d’Amour, originally entitled Liebesgruß (Love’s Greeting) but retitled in French by Elgar’s German publishers, was a wedding present to his fiancée, Caroline Alice Roberts. Their marriage in 1889 was done with her family’s disapproval, but proved to be a love-match in all the good ways. This melody is probably the most famous of Elgar’s light works, and in his publisher’s catalogue were some 25 different arrangements for all manner of ensembles.

Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman, piano duo

The two-piano format made important orchestral works accessible for home consumption. In the case of these three works, which are far better known in their orchestral versions, we can hear both the advantages of the genre and some of its limitations.

Holst: The Planets / Elgar: Introduction and Allegro, Salut d’Amour

Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman, piano duo
SOMM Recordings: SOMMCD 0709

Official Website

Centenary of the Premiere of the Controversial Concerto in F

  by Frances Wilson  December 3rd, 2025

Composed in 1925, following on the success of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, George Gershwin’s ‘Concerto in F’ is one of the most celebrated works that straddles the worlds of classical music and jazz. Commissioned by Walter Damrosch for the New York Symphony Orchestra, it was Gershwin’s largest and most complex work for the concert stage he had yet undertaken – a fully-fledged concerto in the classical three-movement format – and the first work he scored entirely by himself, thus signalling his determination to be taken seriously by the classical establishment. The work showcases his signature blend of rhythmic vitality, blues-inspired melodies and sophisticated orchestration and, like ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, it captures the energy and spirit of 1920s America, from bustling urban life to lyrical introspection. It stands as a landmark in American music, demonstrating Gershwin’s ability to fuse popular idioms with symphonic tradition.

George Gershwin

‘Many persons had thought that the Rhapsody [in Blue] was only a happy accident. Well, I went out, for one thing, to show them that there was plenty more where that had come from’ – George Gershwin speaking about the birth of his Concerto in F.

The Concerto’s premiere took place at Carnegie Hall on 3rd December 1925, conducted by Damrosch with Gershwin at the piano. The concert was sold out, and the Concerto was very well received by the general public. But the reviews were mixed, with many critics unable to classify it as jazz or classical. There was a great variety of opinion among Gershwin’s contemporaries too: Prokofiev found it “amateurish”, while The New York Times called it “a new kind of symphonic jazz,” acknowledging Gershwin’s growing maturity as a composer beyond the success of his earlier ‘Rhapsody in Blue’. Arnold Schoenberg, one of the most influential composers at the time, praised Gershwin’s concerto in a posthumous tribute in 1938:

Arnold Schoenberg

‘Gershwin is an artist and a composer – he expressed musical ideas, and they were new, as is the way he expressed them.… Serious or not, he is a composer, that is, a man who lives in music and expresses everything….by means of music, because it is his native language. … What he has done with rhythm, harmony and melody is not merely style. It is fundamentally different from the mannerism of many a serious composer [who writes] a superficial union of devices applied to a minimum of ideas. … The impression is of an improvisation with all the merits and shortcomings appertaining to this kind of production. … He only feels he has something to say and he says it.’     

The concerto’s lasting legacy begins with its role in legitimising jazz as a component of “serious” music. Gershwin didn’t simply sprinkle jazz harmonies over a classical structure: instead, he successfully integrated syncopations, bluesy melodic contours and the raw energy of urban life into the concerto’s DNA. This helped shift attitudes in concert halls, expanding the notion of what orchestral music could or should contain. It also paved the way for later composers such as Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland to continue exploring the crossover between jazz and classical idioms.

Carnegie Hall program

In addition to its historical importance, the Concerto in F is a beloved staple of the piano concerto repertoire because of its sheer musical appeal. Pianists relish its virtuosic demands, from crisp syncopations to sweeping, lyrical lines. Orchestras enjoy its colourful writing, which includes inventive writing for percussion and dynamic interactions between soloist and ensemble. And audiences continue to be captivated by its buoyant spirit and its ability to convey both exuberance and introspection. Few works capture the optimism, swagger, and complexity of early 20th-century America as vividly as the Concerto in F.

🎻 PART III - 24 famous classical pieces you've heard and don't know the title

Robert Redford has died at 89 years old

 Robert Redford has died at 89 years old.

The film icon starred in classic films such as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "All the President's Men," won an Oscar for directing “Ordinary People” and founded the Sundance Film Institute, among other career highlights. Read more here: https://variety.com/.../robert-redford-dead-all-the.../

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