The demand for piano duet arrangements of concert music during Schumann’s lifetime was very considerable. An inveterate piano duettist himself, Schumann supervised the String Quartet arrangements made by the talented young composer Otto Dressel, whose brilliant solutions to formal problems produced these acclaimed adaptations, for use in home or salon. It was another fine arranger and composer, Theodore Kirchner - admired by Clara Schumann and Brahms – who arranged the Studies for the pedal piano, Op.56, in 1888. This is the second of seven volumes to include Schumann’s entire orchestral works, and selected chamber ones, arranged for piano duet.
"It is difficult to think of a world without radio and recordings, so that even if you could get to concerts, you would probably never hear a work more than once. So far as the present disc is concerned, Schumann became involved in both string quartet arrangements, and certainly for the purpose that they were originally intended they are competent pieces of work, though the percussive nature of the piano is unable to recreate the long flowing lyrical lines of string instruments. I suppose my upbringing as a violinist comes into the picture, and pianists may take a very differing view, but the nature of both quartets is changed into something that is tonally far more simplistic and devoid of the contrasting colours of four string instruments. It is very different when we move to the Studies for pedal piano…for it was conceived as a score for the keyboard. The Eckerle Piano Duo, a German-based husband and wife partnership, are highly persuasive, the six studies avoiding the usual academic mode to emerge as scores of beauty and loving tenderness. The sound is very pleasing, the duo apparently scheduled to place on disc arrangements of Schumann’s entire orchestral works." --David's Review Corner, August 2013
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