Václav Vorisek is an important Czech composer of the early romantic period; his “overture in c-minor op. 16 for two pianos” is his only work scored for this combination of instruments.
It differs from the rest of his piano music by sounding as it were like a full orchestra. This characteristic quality, already announced by the title “Overture”, can further be clearly detected in a tendency to give subjects or phrases the character of single orchestral instruments or groups of instruments. Formally considered, the overture is a rondo-sonata preceded by a slow introduction. The rondo movements as such consists of two contrasting areas of musical expressions: the first, “dramatic”, develops the principal subject recurring in various forms, while the secons, “lyrical”, grows out of catanbile subjects.
As obviously no autopgraph exists any more, this new printed edition is based on that published by Sauer and Leidesdorf at Vienna in 1824.
