Rachmaninoff’s 2-piano Tarantelle, arranged for 1 piano, 4-hands!
After taking on the challenge of arranging Rachmaninoff’s beautiful 2-piano Romance for 1-piano, 4-hands last spring, I was tempted to arrange the Tarnatelle movement from the same op. 17 Suite. I played it in its original 2-piano version during my university studies and it remained in my memory as one of the most exciting pieces ever, both to play and listen to!
It was not as challenging to arrange as I thought it would be, because of the conveniently registered piano 1 and piano 2 parts of the original, but it was a challenge to play, thanks to some awkward hand positions and very fast tempo.
Here are some examples of the changes I made while arranging:
Original 2-piano version
This part has overlapping of parts, so both needed to be shifted in order to keep the eighth notes in one part and the sustained chords in the other
4-hand version
Eighth notes were moved up an octave and the upper chords down an octave
Original 2-piano version
This part didn’t need any changing, as the parts didn’t overlap at all!
Original 2-piano version
This part also worked in its original arrangement, but required some hand-crossing! (see below)
4-hand arrangement
The hand-crossing was fortunately not to difficult!
Original 2-piano version
Some overlapping parts required some adjusting in the 4-hand version
4-hand arrangement
Usually, I tried to avoid splitting parts in the middle of a phrase, but here, it was too inconvenient to put the lower quarter notes in the primo part, so the secondo took all of them. Also the entire Piano 2 part had to be moved down an octave in the secondo part and thinned out to avoid excessive bass rumble.
