LDV82

Do your own sensations differ greatly when you’re playing piano four hands and two pianos? Cédric Pescia: The first difference concerns the space available to us. When playing four hands, we constantly have the feeling of being deprived of our breathing space, either to the right or to the left, whereas with two pianos we retain both the space and the playing comfort we’re used to. However, whether we play on two pianos or one piano with four hands, the sound is just as difficult to control. It takes a lot of experience to feel at ease with questions of balance. And if the two-piano setup doesn’t grant the same proximity as piano four hands – in the sense that each player can sense the other’s breathing, look at the other’s hands, all those things that make ensemble playing easier – it wasn’t too awkward for us, since Philippe and I have gradually developed a very natural, almost miraculous sense of ensemble. Finally, the two-piano configuration offers scope for some very interesting acoustic experiments: at Teldex Studio, our sound engineer quickly suggested that we completely remove the two lids. Although that’s not something you can do in concert (since the sound will tend to go upwards and not towards the audience), in terms of recording and playing comfort it was a wonderful feeling, because the sounds from the two pianos really blended together.