The term piano duo can refer both to a genre of music, written for two pianists to play at either one or two pianos, or to the two pianists themselves.
This is a list of notable performers who appeared as piano duos in classical music. Most of these pianists performed works for piano four-hands (two pianists at one piano; also known as piano duet) as well as works for two pianos, often with orchestras or chamber ensembles. Some of these teams focussed exclusively or predominantly on this repertoire, but some also appeared separately as solo pianists.
Some piano duos appear under a single name (such as the Long Island Piano Duo), or a unified name (such as Nettle & Markham), but the majority simply use both their names (such as Katia and Marielle Labèque or Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir).
People in this list should not be added to List of classical pianists unless they also had significant careers as solo pianists. However, if they recorded music requiring two pianists, they should be added to List of classical pianists (recorded).
Members | Name of duo (where relevant) | Notes and references | ||
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Duo: Stephanie & Saar | [1] | ||
Alexander and Daykin | [2] | |||
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Duo Berlinskaya-Ancelle | |||
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Appleton and Field | Alan Hovhaness wrote his Symphony No. 45, Op. 342 (1954) for them, but they never played it.[3] | ||
seen in either order | ||||
Vronsky & Babin | ||||
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Elena Sorokina and Alexander Bakhchiev | [4] | ||
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Bartlett and Robertson | |||
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[5] | |||
seen in either order | ||||
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Bradshaw-Buono Duo | Discography includes: Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Fest-Polonaise, The Entrance of the Guests to the Wartburg, Benediction and Sermon, March and Cavatina and Fantasy and Fugue on the Chorale 'Ad nos, Ad Salutarem undam'.[6] | ||
Clara Becker · Marie Becker | Clara and Marie Becker | They have been the dedicatees of several compositions among them works written by German composers Birgitta Lutz and Mathias Christian Kosel and are currently collaborating on commissions with the Greek composer Andreas Foivos Apostolou as well as the award winning composer Gonzalo Grau.[7] | ||
Bizjak Piano Duo | ||||
Duo Boschi-Mounier | "Debussy, Clementi, Mozart, Busoni : Musique pour 2 pianos / vol.2 : En blanc et noir - Sonate / op. 12 n° 5 - Sonate / K. 448 - Fantasia contrappuntistica (recorded in France, REM) | |||
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Franz Liszt Piano Duo | They have recorded Bresciani's arrangement of Liszt's Dante Sonata, and Liszt's arrangement of the Dante Symphony.[8] | ||
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Recorded Poulenc's complete music for 2 pianists.[9] | |||
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seen in either order | [10] | ||
Cann Twins | [4] | |||
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Duo Caron | Artists dedicated mainly to their own transcriptions or arrangements of masterful orchestral works such as Italian Symphony by F.-B. Mendelssohn, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks by Richard Strauss, etc. Recordings and numerous world premieres including original arrangements by Sir Paul McCartney[11] | ||
seen in either order | ||||
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[4] | |||
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Goldstone and Clemmow | Made the world premiere recording of the two-piano arrangement of Grieg's Concerto in A minor, written by Grieg and Károly Thern. Also the first recording of Grieg's piano version of the "Homage March" from Sigurd Jorsalfar.[12] They have recorded the piano duet version of Chopin's 2nd Piano Concerto in F minor (arr. Chopin and Carl Mikuli)[13][14] | ||
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Clinton/Narboni Duo | [4] | ||
Richard and John Contiguglia | Made the first recording of Beethoven's 9th Symphony in the two-piano transcription by Franz Liszt; revived Victor Babin's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra; gave New York premiere of Max Bruch's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in A flat minor; made many world premiere recordings of works by Liszt and Bartók.[15] | |||
Duo Crommelynk | They were a very prominent duo, founded in 1974; their three-disc set of the four-hand works of Schubert won a Grand Prix du Disque; many composers wrote works for them. They both died by suicide on 14 July 1994.[4][16] | |||
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De Stefano Piano Duo | [17] | ||
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[4] | |||
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Victor and Luis del Valle | [1] | ||
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[4] | |||
Genova & Dimitrov | Made world premiere recording of the complete piano duo works of Shostakovitch.[18][19] | |||
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Jordans & Van Doeselaar Piano Duo | [20] | ||
Wiener et Doucet | ||||
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D&B Duo | [21] | ||
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Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir | |||
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Duo Egri and Pertis | [4] | ||
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[4][22] | |||
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Duo d´Accord | Made the premiere recording of Clara Schumann's arrangement for piano 4-hands of Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat, Op. 44.[23] | ||
Ferrante & Teicher | ||||
Gold and Fizdale | ||||
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Lillian and Irwin Freundlich | [4] | |||
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Yoshie and Takashi | [1] | ||
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Gareis & Pohl | European premiere of J.Adams "Hallelujah junction" (2000)[24] | ||
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HOCKET | Contemporary music piano duo | ||
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Goldina & Loumbrozo | [25][26] | ||
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[4] | |||
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Maribeth and Bradford Gowen | [4] | ||
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Piano Duo Vis-à-vis | [1] | ||
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Duo Tal & Groethuysen | |||
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Margherita Malagoli and Roberto Guerra | [4] | ||
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Thomas Hecht and Sandra Shapiro | [4][25] | ||
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Hernádi-Mocsári Piano Duo | Recorded works by Bartók, including a duo-piano arrangement of The Miraculous Mandarin.[27] | ||
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[1] | |||
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Stecher and Horowitz Piano Duo | [28] | ||
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Made the world premiere recording of 22 unknown original transcriptions by Sergei Rachmaninoff for piano for four hands after Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty.[29][30] | |||
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Piano Duo Humburger | [31] | ||
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Frances Veri and Michael Jamanis | [4] | ||
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[4] | |||
Jacqueline Robin and Genevieve Joy | ||||
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Heidi and Alfred Kanwischer | [4] | ||
Invencia Piano Duo | In collaboration with Naxos Records, on its Grand Piano series, they have released four CDs of Florent Schmitt's complete duo-piano works.[32][33][34][35] | |||
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Walter and Beatriz Klien | |||
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Recorded 17 CDs of all Brahms's arrangements for piano 4-hands or 2 pianos (mostly of his own music, but including Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat.[36] | |||
seen in either order | They have given first performances of works by Luciano Berio, Sylvano Bussotti, Mauricio Kagel, Karlheinz Stockhausen,[37] Henri Pousseur, Luis de Pablo and Bernd Alois Zimmermann.[38][39] | |||
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Kotlyar-Shifrin Piano Duo | [40][41] | ||
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Koshka Piano Duo | [42] | ||
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Valentina Lisista and Alexei Kuznetsoff | [4][43] | ||
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Carles and Sofia piano duo | |||
Rawicz and Landauer | Played mainly light classics and arrangements of existing works.[44] | |||
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The Latsos Piano Duo | Individually, Anna Fedorova-Latso from Russia, and Giorgi Latso from Tbilisi, Georgia, are piano virtuosos on the international classical music scene, who have performed in recitals,[45][46] chamber ensembles, and have performed with leading orchestras worldwide. They just released their first recording with Vienna Acoustics, works by Mozart and Schubert.[47] | ||
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Piano Duo Liva-Stregapede | They play unusual repertoire such as Saint-Saëns' 2-piano arrangement of Liszt's Sonata in B minor, and Shostakovich's arrangement of Honegger's Symphony No. 3; performed world premieres of works by Ástor Piazzolla, unpublished versions for 2 pianos and a version for piano duo by Casella of Beethoven's 9 symphonies, and Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony.[48] | ||
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Sviatoslav Richter and Vassili Lobanov | [49] | ||
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LP Piano Duo | [1] | ||
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Christine and Beatrice Long | [4] | ||
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Longford-Brown Piano Duo | [1] | ||
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Whittemore and Lowe | [50] | ||
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Luboshutz and Nemenoff | [51][52] | ||
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[53] | |||
seen in either order | ||||
[54] | ||||
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Igor and Olga Machlak | [55] | ||
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[4] | |||
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Ralph Markham & Kenneth Broadway | Recorded the Concerto For Two Pianos by Vaughan Williams for Virgin Classics, and Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens for Telarc Records. Toured Europe and North America with the Philharmonia Hungarica in performances of concertos by Francis Poulenc and Mozart at Lincoln Centre and the Kennedy Centre. They made their Town Hall debut in March 1988.[56] | ||
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Nettle & Markham | In 1985 they gave the UK premiere of Bruch's Double Concerto. They were the first duo to give concert performances of The Planets in Holst's own two-piano version. | ||
Marlowe Brothers | ||||
Guy Meier
Lee Pattison |
Meier & Pattison | In 1924 they gave the American premiere of Leo Sowerby's Ballade for Two Pianos and Orchestra (King Estmere) with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Albert Coates in New York. Sowerby also made a 2-piano version of the first of his two Paul Whiteman Orchestra commissions, Synconata, for the duo, as well as his Graingeresque Fisherman's Tune. | ||
The first duo to record the entire works for piano duo/duet by Mozart. | ||||
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Morel-Nemish Duo | [25][57] | ||
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[26] | |||
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[58] | |||
The twin-sister piano duo are graduates of the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music, where they were each awarded the Festorazzi Prize. They are Steinway Artists and currently reside in New York City.[59] Christina and Michelle Naughton’s first album was released on the label ORFEO in 2012.[60] | ||||
Nelson and Neal | ||||
seen in either order | ||||
Ferhan and Ferzan Önder | Turkish-Austrian pianists, born October 2, 1965. Moved to Austria in 1985 to study in Vienna. | [4] | ||
Anthony & Joseph Paratore | William Bolcom wrote his Sonata in One Movement for them; they premiered Alban Berg's transcription of Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony, Op. 9; Dave Brubeck entrusted his original two-piano music to them and they premiered his "Points on Jazz". | |||
Pekinel sisters or Güher and Süher Pekinel | Identical twins (born 1951, Istanbul), made their debut at the age of six. Recorded the four hand reduction of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring for Deutsche Grammophon in 1980. | |||
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Mary and Geraldine Peppin | They were identical twins, born 30 December 1912 in Somerset. Premieres included Stanley Bate's Three Pieces for Two Pianos, Arnold Cooke's Sonata for Two Pianos, Peter Racine Fricker's Concertante for Three Pianos (with additional pianist Kyla Greenbaum),[61] Constant Lambert's Trois Pieces Negres, Humphrey Searle's Gold Coast Customs and Bernard Stevens' Introduction and Allegro. | ||
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Irina and Maxim | [31] | ||
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Reding–Piette Piano Duo | [62][63] | ||
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Rostal and Schaefer | [64] | ||
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Schnabel formed this duo after the death of his first duo partner, his wife Helen Fogel (see Helen Fogel, Karl-Ulrich Schnabel) | |||
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[4] | |||
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Pas de Duo | [65] | ||
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Susanne and Dinis Schemann | [4] | ||
Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick | Malcolm Arnold, Lennox Berkeley, Arthur Bliss, Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams all wrote concertos for them. | |||
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Silver-Garburg Piano Duo | [66][67] | ||
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Trenkner-Speidel Piano Duo | They have made world premiere CD recordings of Max Reger's arrangements of Bach's works.[68] | ||
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Stenzl Piano Duo | [26] | ||
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Tengstrand-Sun Piano Duo | [4][69] | ||
Rose and Ottilie Sutro | The Sutro sisters have been described as "the world's first recognised duo-piano team", but Willi and Louis Thern preceded them by almost 30 years. Max Bruch wrote his Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in A flat minor for them, but they never played it in its original form. | |||
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Teltschik Brothers | |||
Willi and Louis Thern | Appeared in Europe from 1866. | |||
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Trimble Sisters | Arthur Benjamin wrote his best-known work, Jamaican Rhumba, for them.[44] | ||
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Duo Turgeon | [18][70] | ||
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Duo Petrof | [71][72] | ||
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Piano Duo Varshavski and Shapiro | [17] | ||
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[31] | |||
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Duo Zheleznov | [43] | ||
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Bergmann Duo | [22] | ||
Aleksandra Pazdyga-Chojnacka
Michał Chojnacki |
Aleami Piano Duo |
((cite web))
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
Janine Reding of the Reding-Piette piano duo will present master classes in the Czech Republic;
Janine Reding et Henry Piette sont une équipe prodigieuse, étoffant le tourbillon de notes dans le premier mouvement d'une manière assurément brillante, faisant chanter sans pour cela adoucir l'Adagio, et rivalisant de force et de vitalité avec l'orchestre dans le final rythmique.[Janine Reding and Henry Piette are a prodigious team, fleshing out the swirl of notes in the first movement in an assuredly brilliant way, making the Adagio sing without softening, and rivaling the orchestra in strength and vitality in the rhythmic finale.]