9 Bagatelles for Piano Duet

I’ve always been attracted to composing miniature duets in the hope that young musicians might find both them both enjoyable and challenging – a potent combination – and that they might be useful for students to perform with their teachers. When my own children were very young I began a series of recorder duets, and over the years these have been adapted for pairs of strings, woodwinds, trumpets and keyboards as the necessity arose.

I was especially pleased when my friend the pianist Elizabeth Green commissioned this set of piano duets. Some of them are arrangements of earlier pieces; some have been especially conceived for the medium. They’re intended to be performable by enthusiastic young pianists, amateurs and professionals and on the whole they’re more a test of musicianship than technical prowess.

The first performance was given at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music on 17 July 2001 by Elizabeth Green and Erzsi Marosseky.

 

Flight of Sunbirds – Energico

 

Flight of Sunbirds – Andantino

 

Flight of Sunbirds – Allegro Raggiante