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Prior to the age of mechanical reproduction, music lovers had two primary ays in which to enjoy music: they could attend concerts, which was fraught with difficulties due to the dilapidated state of the road system and lack of transportation methods, or they could make music themselves, giving rise to the tradition of the house concert during the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. The increase in importance and popularity of Hausmusik was enabled by rapid technical advancements in the development of the piano. Composers and virtuosos created an ever-increasing number of transcriptions and arrangements for piano two or four hands with the intention of making them available to a wider audience. This recording presents a selection of arrangements of orchestral works for piano solo, arranged specifically for this purpose, by composers Bedrich Smetana, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, and Aram Khachaturian. New York-based French-Swiss pianist Francois-Xavier Poizat provides a wealth of tone colors while exploiting the virtuosic capabilities of the piano to it's limits.
Francois Xavier Poizat