Gershwin preludes

[BuyBuy]

Hey !

I've played some time ago Gershwin's three preludes (not too hard, just a few tricky spots), but now I'm planning to relearn them in the violin-piano version for a recital with a friend.

Has anyone played them in this version ? Is it harder or very different from the piano solo, cause I haven't seen the score yet ?

[rachfan]

I have never seen the duet score, but surmise that the piano part might be simpler.   My reasoning is actually reverse reasoning.  I play both Rachmaninoff's Songs and his own piano transcriptions.  (I've also looked at a couple of Earl Wild's transcriptions for songs that Rachmaninoff did not transcribe.)  What typically happens is that in the song version, the singer gets the melodic line, naturally, which reduces the piano part to pure and more simple accompaniment.  The transcriptions, on the other hand, must combine both the voice and piano parts, so they are more difficult.  I've also seen this in Chalot's clever solo piano transcription (which I've played) of Ravel's Ma Mere L'Oye for two pianos.  In comparing the scores, the solo transcription is often more busy than the duet as you might expect.  

The one thing that might mitigate against this is precedence in piano-violin sonatas.  Some composers treat the piano part more as accompaniment, while others ensure that the piano part is robust and equal in every way to the violin part.  So using that as a guide, the Gershwin pieces could go either way.  Let us know what you find!

By the way, congrats on doing the Preludes.  I play the 2nd Prelude, but never got around to the other two.