A web page resulting from an evening of exploring musical duos, duets and 'pas de deux'. Results include my old favorites and a few new favorites. All of these performances are limited to two of the same instruments, including vocal partners and dance partners. If you include different instruments you open a whole new region of sonatas, concertos, rock, jazz performances, etc. I also left out Country, Blues and similar, not having familiarity, or interest in.
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Starting with a piano duet for 4 hands on one piano. Rachmaninov supposedly found the melody from a street vendor while vacationing in Italy. It is a polka that attests to its popularity with many performances and variations on Youtube. This I believe is the original that Rachmaninov wrote, for 4 hands, a clean performance with no alterations.
Rachmaninoff Polka italienne, Sandra & Jürg Hanselmann, Klavier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW622U-wwio
This performance is a series of variations with a piano duo as a tour-de-force. Think Liberace and Victor Borge, if such a mix would have ever happened. I really doubt it though.
S-rachmaninov-polka-italiana
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHdSPmIfO5U
This piano duet was composed by Valery Gavrilin, a modern Russian composer very popular with his Sketches for 4 hands. His music is quite distinctive in style and tonality. This performance is by Raffi Kharajanyan (of The Riga Piano Duo) and a stunning young woman in black. The performances are the Waltz and the Tarantella. The Tarantella is based on an especially catchy tune. Other performances include the also popular March.
V.Gavrilin - Waltz and Tarantella (В. Гаврилин - Вальс и тарантелла)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGtAn-QP9G8
This piano duet is a piece that all music students become acquainted with, and is familiar to almost everyone. As opposed to most who have never heard of Gavrilin.
Schubert: Military March for 4 hands (HD)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wf7PR9Nk_s
We move on to a vocal duo by two of the most famous operatic performers currently performing around the world. Eliana Garanca, a Latvian with a beautiful mezzo soprano voice. Anna Netrebko is Russian soprano of equal popularity. Together their voices perfectly blend in this performance.
Barcarolle - Anna Netrebko & Elina Garanca - Offenbach Barcarola
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdc2zNgJIpY
Mozart's Don Giovanni opera is a comedy with melodramatic elements. This famous duet is where the Don is trying to get Zerilina a poor girl into bed. She is vacillating between refusing and giving in. There being advantages to both options.
Là ci darem la mano (Duet between Don Giovanni & Zerlina), from Mozart's Don Giovanni (with english subs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbmBeJ2rTSA
Which unfortunately has been made private.
Use the next, which also has the necessary subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11HmAQWIVO8
A te, o cara, from I Puritani by Bellini. A famous aria performed in this recording by Luciano Pavarotti and soprano Joan Sutherland in 1973. This aira, a declaration of love, can stand alone for it's beauty, without the context of the full opera. Also interestingly, a joyous ending to the classic movie "Fitzcaraldo".
A te, o cara, from I Puritani by Bellini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMnC0W26Hkw
How about a little ragtime duet with one of the new younger female performers who performs worldwide. If you can keep your feet still listing to this, something is wrong with your legs.
Trick & Yarian duet: I Found A New Baby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYe8dmlVrxk
Another performance by Stephanie and her husband in this jazz piece. Sort of a romantic jazz played wonderfully with the two in perfect collaboration.
The World is Waiting for the Sunrise - Paolo Alderighi and Stephanie Trick, piano duo, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEPQp3Bn4hM
For a rousing ragtime performance, just listen to Tom Brier. He is second in this duo but sight reads ragtime like crazy as his other Youtube performances demonstrate. Just wild.
Rising Star (Tom Brier) sight-read by Kylan deGhetaldi, with Tom Brier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5FzlKhEjmE
Where would we be without this iconic duo in the movie 'Deliverance'. This is a clip from the movie. The movie seems to have a second coming with bumper stickers, that say something like "Paddle faster I hear banjos".
Banjos (HD)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myhnAZFR1po
Duos are not only in musical instruments but dance. This clip is the pas de deux, or dance for two, in the ballet Don Quixote, performed by Svetlana Zakharova, one of the most famous prima ballerinas of the Russian Bolshoi Ballet. The video is slightly pinched in aspect ratio, so the performers are not quite as thin as they look. This video clip has more than just the the pas de deux.
Don Quixote grand pas de deux - Svetlana Zakharova and Andrei Uvarov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOIZyYbidAU
Who does not appreciate Tim Burton movies? We will end this evening of duos with this weird romantic piano duet. If you have never seen this movie, do so some time. In the comment section on this Youtube I believe the best one is from a poor soul stating "The awkward moment when a cartoon character has a more romantic life with a corpse than you have in real life...".
Corpse Bride Piano Duet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaMcImrNnOQ
May 16, 2015