Here is a Milestone where I am going to discuss some of the famous works for double piano and orchestra. The first one would be Phillip Glass’s L Sisters for double piano and orchestra. It’s called the Labeque Sisters. It is the concerto for two pianos and orchestra. It is simply dazzling. It is perfectly metronomic in its execution. It has a bit of a jazz beat a quarter of the way through. There are fills all throughout and the piccolo part balancing with the pianos dueling with one another. I always think of double-piano duels when I hear works like this. The pianos give a certain depth and choppiness to it that makes the piece grow substantially in character.
There’s a tremendous outpouring of harmonies that are clusters of an f-centered tonality that stays in the same vein or tone. Multiple layers actually inspired the piece. To describe it accurately, it is a minimalistic piece taken to the nth degree. Something dazzling goes on when you have two pianos in relations with the orchestra. It is not your typical concerto where the piano has a solo break or multiple ones and then the orchestra takes over and embellishes the textures that the piano addresses in its solos. The piano and the orchestra are more intertwined with each other in the Romantic Era kind of sense. It is really gorgeous. I would love to see this in person. It’s a fabulous work extremely well executed. The high woodwinds go really well with the two pianos dueling back and forth. It’s like a parade of fireworks that come from the piano. This is part of Phillip Glass’s Four Movements for piano (with or without orchestra). The very triplet nature of the piece makes me think that this is for a movie and not classically oriented.
It has been indicated to me that the Labeque sisters are the piano players that are playing these for movements for double piano and orchestra. Everyone waits in baited breath in their seats watching these two sisters duke it out on piano from the D minor and F major movement to the G minor movement. It’s all there. Fast arpeggios dot the landscape of the piece while anchor chords keep the texture strong. The flowing nature of all the piece’s movements has a hint of Romanticism but also Neo-classicism that is so prevalent today.
