Me and my crazy Welsh cousin are very keen piano duet players and were wondering if any of you had any tips for really great music. The secondo is grade 8 and the primo is grade 7/8. We practise separtely quite a lot (the four hour car journey and inability to drive ourselves is restricting!) We have lots of duet books already, but they're all just pieces arranged for piano duet, and we would like to learn a "proper" one. Thankyou.

Some of my favourite piano duets:

Schubert F minor fantasia (marginal for a Grade 7 primo, but one of his greatest works);

Mozart Andante (or might be "Theme") and Variations in G (sorry I can't give a K number, as I'm away from home; the theme starts low Sol, Do, Mi, Ray, Ti, high Sol);

Ravel "Mother Goose";

Fauré "Dolly".

Dvorak's 'Slavonic Dances' - he wrote two books of them, I slightly prefer the first over the second, but they're both good . The Slavonic Dances were later orchestrated by Dvorak himself, but the piano duets are the originals - it's just that they're such good tunes, he caved into popular demand .

Mozkowski's Spanish Dances?

Mozart's sonatas for four hands? I like the Slavonic Dances too. And with Christmas not all that far away, what about the 'Christmas Jazzin' About' book? Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is good fun as a duet.

Check out some of the duets on this page -

http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Duet

Unfortunately not all duets listed here - you may have to sift through them but some of the ones mentioned by others above.

Brahms Hungarian Dances
Poulenc Sonata
Debussy Petite Suite

above are my very favourite!
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I would add 'Scaramouche' a suite by Milhaud, and endorse 'Dolly', 'Mother Goose' , and Slavonic Dances.
Theres also a good version of 'Arrival of the Queen of Sheba'

I was about to say 'Scaramouche' by Darius Milhaud but was beaten to it! I absolutely love it, the third movement especially!!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OSshNURjR4Y

That is telepathic, Superflute - I'd just logged on intending to post something about duets!
I adore playing them and a group of us here in Wiltshire get together once a month for that very purpose. I also have a friend in London who I play with.
I'm learning Schubert's Marche Militaire at the moment (though whether we'll ever get it right up to speed is another matter) and I love it. The other one I really want to learn in Schubert's Rondo in D major, D 608. I'm on the grade 6 side of grade 7, if that makes sense, and although the Rondo is easily within my accomplished partner's range, it may be beyond me. Anyway, it's beautiful, and quite long, so it would be a real project.

Also, Diabelli's Melodious Exercises op. 149 are simple and great fun. You'd be able just to sit down and play them together straight off which one sometimes feels like doing after playing something which requires hours of practice and very hard concentration.

I've done the Schubert Marche Millitaire!

I think the most interesting one I've heard so far is still the Rachmaninov, Op 17, IV Tarantelle, but a) I've got to be willing to spend all my printing credit and b) Need someone to be willing to play the other part any way! Do any of you try to swap parts by the way, or do you stick to learning just your part?

~Wobby~

'Arrival of the Queen of Sheba' is in a book of duets by Baroque composers, published by OUP. There are some other good ones in there too.

Suggestion - look at the Trinity Guildhall syllabus for piano duets; it'll give you an idea of how hard or easy things are, too. There's very good selection in the repertoire list for the advanced recital certificate.

I like "Scaramouche" as well but this is for two pianos...

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WOW!!! I never knew they were originally piano duets!!!
I have a cd of the orchestrated pieces and I absolutely love it to bits

Piano duets were potential big money makers in the 19th C. Brahms wrote his "Liebeslieder waltzes" in 1874, originally for piano duet with SATB voices, then produced a version for just duet, and lived comfortably on the proceeds (plus those from a second set, the "New liebeslieder waltzes", that he wrote to satisfy widespread public demand) for the rest of his life. Liszt wrote piano duet versions of the Beethoven symphonies, many other orchestral works were also arranged, and for much of the century, this was a major source of music for many people: those who lived out of easy reach of a town or city with an orchestra and were sufficiently well off to own a piano.

Thankyou very much! We have aquired the Brahms and the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba and have been having great fun!