Concerto for Piano (four hands) and String Orchestra (2016)
(Arrangement of Brahms’ Quartet Op. 25)

The arrangement of Brahms' Quartet op. 25 was written in 2016/17 and premiered on October 27, 2017 in Gersthofen near Augsburg by the dedicatees Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg and the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie under Florian Krumpöck.

I had previously arranged Schubert's Grande Sonata (originally for piano four hands) for piano four hands and string orchestra, and after the successful premiere, Gil Garburg suggested the Brahms piano quartets to me in order to have another work in this instrumentation.

Originally I had scruples about arranging the 1st Quartet op. 25, as there is an orchestral version of this work by Schönberg. However, the fact that this version is very problematic and, in my opinion, (as someone who has his artistic roots in Vienna, whose roots also lie partly in the Second Viennese School and who loves and highly respects many of Schönberg's works) is one of his least successful operas, encouraged me to rework this piece, especially in a completely different instrumentation.

There were three further reasons why I decided to take the plunge:

Firstly, the fact that there is an original version by Brahms for piano four hands (as well as of the 2nd Quartet in A major), so I was able to refer to two versions in my arrangement.

Secondly, in the original version for piano quartet, the musical content almost pushes the instrumentation to its limits, the compositional richness and the almost symphonic density actually "burst" the chamber music instrumentation.

And thirdly, that op. 25 is a particular highlight in Brahms' oeuvre and one of his most successful and magnificent works, which can also win over a wider audience thanks to the larger instrumental setting and also puts a repertoire piece by Brahms into the hands of piano duos.

I was also attracted by the concertante element bubbling under the surface and its unleashing, and, as I said, the possibility of including Brahms' own arrangement of the work for piano four hands in my new version. Being able to alternate between the versions, as well as to create "mixtures" between them or to find my own solutions within the framework of the existing one, meant that not only could I reinforce a concert dramaturgy but also create a new one.

So I composed carefully in many places, because simply creating a dramaturgical division between the two original versions would have led to a patchy and thin result. The repeats in the last movement, for example, were all "orchestrated". I also extended the cadenza for two-handed piano to one for four hands.

 So, the whole thing has nothing whatsoever to do with a scholarly or philological work, I ultimately approached the original as if it were my own and had the courage to do things that a pure arranger would never allow himself to do.

This is much more an act of (present-day) re-composition than a mere arrangement, and is due to the fact that I am deeply convinced that limiting myself to a purely technical or purely philological level here (and in instrumentation in general) can neither prove worthy of the spirit of the original composition nor create a living work of art. For the love of the original piece and its composer demands that new creativity be applied.

 For me, instrumentations are like translations in literature, which, when they are made by artists who bring their own personality to the work to be translated, can become original reinterpretations, as in the case of Hölderlin, Stefan George or Celan, for example, or in music with Bach, Henze, Ravel, Webern or Shostakovich...

Ideally, the arranging composer sees the new instrumentation already laid out in the original work, just as Michelangelo selected the marble blocks in the Carrara quarry in such a way that they were ideal for the planned sculptures; indeed, he has already "seen" the new work into the stone structures.

Richard Dünser, April 2020