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"Drive Discovery ... (the sisters) are on scintillating form in these lively arrangements ..." - Classic FM Together for the first time in the recording studio, sisters Mari and Momo Kodama are scintillating on these lively arrangements from Tchaikovsky’s ballets Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker. In another first, the release contains the first ever recording of Arensky’s transcription of the timeless Nutcracker together with notable arrangements by Debussy and Rachmaninov. Conceived on a grand scale, Tchaikovsky’s colourful, often passionate scores abound with graceful melodies, arresting harmonies and exuberant orchestration. Composers such as Arensky, Debussy and Rachmaninov made arrangements of these works for piano, not mere reductions but wholesale realizations of the works, combining subtlety and insight with their own technical polish. "Tchaikovsky was really the first composer to combine a broad sweep of ballet music with a great story. Before that, it more resembled a compilation of pieces ... in all three works there is folkloric and popular music. He has the great skill to make such vivid colours and textures on a large canvas ... this makes his orchestral works very special ... our challenge was to use just two pianos ... to bring the same sense of scale with just two pianos the atmosphere is more intimate, it brings a different quality to the music. And the composers who made the transcriptions brought their own personality to bear on the works. So we tried to reflect that in our playing." - Mari and Momo Kodama