Chinese Dance Archive

Russian Ballet Transcriptions for 2 Pianos = STRAVINSKY, BORODIN, TCHAIKOVSKY, KHACHATURIAN – Piano 21

by Audiophile Audition | Feb 26, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

Cyrpien Katsaris and Etsuko Hirose provide fingers and firepower to a compilation of Russian ballet favorites. Russian Ballet Transcriptions = STRAVINSKY: The Firebird – Suite No. 2; BORODIN: Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, Act II; TCHAIKOVSKY: Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66: Adagio; The Nutcracker – Suite, Op. 71a; Swan Lake, Op. 20: 3 Dances; KHACHATURIAN: Gayaneh: Sabre Dance and Lezginka – Cyprien Katsaris and Etsuko Hirose, pianos – Piano 21 P 21 056-N, 76:06 (1/20/17) [www.cyprienkatsaris.net] ****:  Hearing this 2016 performance of Stravinsky’s The Firebird – Suite (1919) in Achilleas Wastor’s 2-piano arrangement, I could well recall director Jan Kounen’s 2010 Stravinsky & Coco Chanel and its dramatized (and apocryphal) evolution of the ballet music for Le Sacre du Printemps. We feel through the excellent ensemble of Katsaris and Hirose – in this world premier recording – the evocation of those colors the orchestra will realize, along with Stravinsky’s use of the 50 Russian Folksongs that aided Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, especially in the latter’s Op. 31 Sinfonietta on Russian Themes. The two keyboards literally purr in the Ronde des princesses and then explode with flatulent fire in the Danse infernale du roi Kastchei. Though I miss the ineffable harp’s entry for […]