Bizet: Jeux d'enfants op. 22
Debussy: Petite Suite L 65
Fauré: Dolly op. 56
Ravel: Ma mère l'oye M 60
Aubert: Feuille d'images
Ludmilla Berlinskaya & Arthur Ancelle (piano duo)
Alpha 1024 • 74' •
Recording: April 2022, Salle Colonne, Paris
You read little about it, but there is an essential difference between piano quatre mains (four hands), where two players sit at one piano, and two pianos, where the two pianists each have their own instrument at their disposal. As a result, the compositions for the respective genre also differ considerably. In the first case (quatre mains) one player takes the treble and the other the bass register, whereas in the second case both players have no limitation since the entire keyboard range is at their disposal.
The quatre mains playing was and is primarily intended for domestic circumstances. After all, in most homes there is a lack of space but also often the finances for a second instrument. This also explains why this genre was much more popular and still is, and why considerably more compositions have been written for it. Music for two pianos is more intended for the concert hall.
Four-hand playing is no sinecure, because the playing space is limited and the four hands get in each other's way quite easily. On YouTube you can find plenty of videos that illustrate this, but listening alone, of course depending on the playing technical qualities of the duo, it is not or hardly noticeable.
Ludmilla Berlinskaya and Arthur Ancelle are not only a wonderful piano duo, but they are also partners outside the music business. Whether the latter entails a musical advantage I do not know, but it is obvious, because being so close to each other daily means an extra musical interaction. In a family context there are phenomenal duos such as brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Martijn and Stefan Blaak and sisters Katia and Marielle Labeque, or from the distant past brothers Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky. Other well-known duos are Amacord, Mephisto and Scholtes & Janssens. But also occasional duos can achieve fantastic performances, as Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim, Benjamin Britten and Clifford Curzon, Svjatoslav Richter and Andrei Gavrilov have demonstrated.
In duo playing it revolves – depending on the notation – not only on synchronized playing, but there is much more to it, such as flowing playing with the accompanying tempo changes, the application of coloring effects, phrasing, articulation, accentuation, dynamics and pedal use. And then there is the sheer freshness and finesse. These are not elements that necessarily go hand in hand, because both players have their own fantasy alongside their own part. And nobody is waiting for stilted quatre mains playing because equality would be the most important focal point. This duo knows what it ultimately comes down to: the pleasure of playing, because that shines through in this extremely colorful and lively playing that knows no limits in a stylistic sense either (literally too!). And...the equally delightful Feuille d'images (1930) by Louis Aubert you unfortunately hear all too rarely.
In short, I cannot imagine a more attractive album and better interpretations, nor a better recording and an even better maintained piano!