Stephanie McCallum - Four Hands On Stage, Opera and Symphony Conceived for the Keyboard

In the days before recorded sound, people usually learned their orchestral music at home, playing it in piaIn the days before recorded sound, people usually learned their orchestral music at home, playing it in piano transcriptions for two or four hands. Two German-Jewish composers took that idea a stage further: Ignaz Moscheles, protege of Beethoven, wrote a symphony for four hands at a single keyboard, and Ferdinand Hiller, friend of Berlioz, Chopin and Liszt, went a step further, following Moscheles' symphony without an orchestra with an opera without singers - both works bold genre-busters well before the term had even been invented. No transcriptions for two or four hands. Two German-Jewish composers took that idea a stage further: Ignaz Moscheles, protege of Beethoven, wrote a symphony for four hands at a single keyboard, and Ferdinand Hiller, friend of Berlioz, Chopin and Liszt, went a step further, following Moscheles' symphony without an orchestra with an opera without singers - both works bold genre-busters well before the term had even been invented.