Re: What is the reason for this piano duo layout?

On 4/6/2025 6:36 PM, DeepBlue wrote:

How is this not "strict literalism", and how did he
know "better"? Today's instruments are nothing like
the pianoforti and the fortepiani of his time. Could
any compawsers living in those times have imagined
the sound of a 9' Boisendorfer, Fazioli, or Yamaha?

Precisely my point, they couldn't. This is why Schubert and co. played on a Fazioli is a transcription. Nothing wrong with that, and not a very original point anyway after about sixty years of debates on original instruments and HIPs.

I very much prefer to hear different sound, different
color palettes, and different expression and phrasing
from the two pianists rather than a homogenuous sound
mix. To my ears the latter is more bland.

Your prerogative.

A performance
of a 4 hand piano work on 2 pianos is not a transcription
unless the score has been modified. If one followed your
reasoning to its logical conclusion performing the work
on any instrumenti that are however different from Franz'
spinet would create a "transcription".

Technically Schubert played pianos by Seidner and Walther & Sohn. And, actually, a modification of the "score" has never been a necessary condition for a "transcription" (in fact, a modification of the score is more properly an "arrangement"). Again, we are reinventing the wheel here. And again, whatever makes you happy.

Cheers!

Cheers!