Mocsári Károly és Kocsis Krisztián zongorakoncertje / BTF 2019

Bartók: Two Pictures, Op. 10 (arrangement for two pianos by Zoltán Kocsis)

Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet – Scherzo, Op. 17 (arrangement for two pianos by Zoltán Kocsis)

Debussy: Three Nocturnes – Sirens (arrangement for two pianos by Zoltán Kocsis)

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite – Flower Waltz (arrangement for two pianos by Zoltán Kocsis)

Ravel: La Valse – Waltz (arrangement for two pianos by Zoltán Kocsis)

Zoltán Kocsis wrote several arrangements for one or two pianos of such 19th- and 20th-century symphonic or operatic works which are commonly considered exceptional examples of composing for large orchestras. Wagner, Berlioz, Bartók, Debussy, or Ravel would themselves be surprised to hear how much of their splendidly lustrous music could be captured by the piano.

While Zoltán Kocsis’s arrangements have been available for long decades – he published his adaptation of Béla Bartók’s early Two Pictures and the Sirens movement of Debussy’s nocturnes as early as 1978–1980 – these amazing versions, which have all the virtues of paraphrases, have not been performed publicly. Károly Mocsári and Krisztián Kocsis’s now seek to make up for this omission.