Rachmaninoff’s Romance for 2-pianos, transcribed for 1-piano 4-hands!
by Scott
The Romance from the 2nd Suite for 2 Pianos, op. 17 by Sergei Rachmaninoff is a piece that has always been a favorite of mine, and I did play it briefly in its original 2-piano form during my undergrad studies, but never performed it. Clare and I originally wanted to include my new 1-piano 4-hand arrangement of the work in a Valentine’s pre-recorded concert for the Brock House concert series in February 2022, but we had enough music at the time, so we didn’t get to record it. We were happy to premiere it for a private audience in April, and then for the public this past weekend at the Vancouver Symphony’s Day of Music event.
To transcribe a 2-piano work into 1-piano four hands, several things needed to be taken into account. The most important difference in the two ensembles is the overlapping of voices - on two pianos, this is not a problem because each pianist has easy access to all 88 keys, but as a duet, the primo will have trouble reaching the bass, and the secondo part will have trouble reaching into the treble, in both cases because the other person is in the way!
Whenever I encountered overlapping of voices, I had to decide which voices to cut out, or to move up or down an octave. As much as possible, I like to keep one phrase’s melody in one part and only change parts in a subsequent phrase if necessary.
The way I arranged the particular passage below was originally completely different (from its current version), with Clare’s right hand reaching over both of my hands for several pages. It looked fine on paper, but it turned out to be extremely difficult physically for both of us! I had to have both hands very low but had to play lots of fast notes, which was not ideal in that hand position. Clare had to reach very far and it became hard to control the melody. I came up with a solution that was not only easier to play, but still retained the overall sound of the original 2-piano version.
Original 2-piano version
Notice how Piano 1 and Piano 2 overlap.
My first attempt at arranging this passage for piano 4-hands.
I had to leave out many of the left hand triplets because it would have overlapped with the secondo tenor melody. The secondo part’s melody crossed over the entire primo part (for several pages!), and the primo had to play with very low hands and wrists, creating discomfort for both of us!
The final version
I came up with a solution that was a huge relief for both of us - no more awkward hand positions in the primo, no more difficult jumps in the secondo’s left hand while crossing the right hand way over the primo part. The primo plays the chordal melody, and the left hand fills in the triplets with rests on the first of each group, to keep the hand relaxed.
