Johannes Brahms, arranged for two guitars by Duo Miric
Bergmann Edition: Score and separate parts (20 , 12 and 12 pages respectively )
Here are three (Nos 4, 10 and 11) of the 21 Hungarian Dances that Brahms wrote, arranged for two guitars by Duo Miric. These wonderfully arranged pieces work really well on two guitars, but you do need to be at least very good players to cope with some of the difficulties, but the effort is worth it!
No4 is set in E minor to begin with and the melody and accompaniment parts swap constantly so that both players get to play the melody lines. Like most of the 21 dances there are plenty of fast , relentless passages that will task the players, but it is all very guitaristic and nothing feels awkward, although the multitude of extremely small note values here and the diving around the fingerboard, necessary to create the right effect, will give some players a hard time.
No10 is a Presto, in E Major, and again has many places where the music demands your full technique to do it justice.
Finally No11 is a shorter and slower work, set in Dm with a dropped D 6th for the guitar parts, but still full of interesting detail.
Indeed everything does sound very apt on the guitars and so any audience would love these fine examples of arranging, and so I can fully recommend this trio of pieces!
Chris Dumigan
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