On Christmas Eve 1950, the Italian Radio broadcast a radio play based on Adalbert Stifter's novella Rock Crystal. The music was written by Nino Rota, the translation was made by Gabriella Benci and Ippolito Pizzetti (the son of the composer Ildebrando Pizzetti, one of Rota's teachers). Here, too, the duo carefully edited the existing piano version. With these two pieces, the piano duet repertoire has taken on a whole new colour, and both performers and listeners can plunge into the atmosphere of Rota's film musics.

The 'Old Viennese Dance Tunes', originally composed for violin and piano, are published in an arrangement for piano duet for the first time. It is thanks to the Viennese charm of this music that the pieces have become well-known all over the world. The three-four time typical of Vienna requires a certain, yet hardly noticeable liberty of tempo interpretation without metronomic constraints.

Nino Rota is known primarily for his film scores such as Godfather, La dolce vita, Il Gattopardo, etc.


As well as instrumental concertos, Rota also wrote Concerto per orchestra (also under the titles of Concerto in Fa and Concerto Festivo).
Rota's own arrangement for piano duet, simply entitled Concerto, formed the basis of this edition, edited by Duo Pianistico di Firenze (Sara Bartolucci and Rodolfo Alessandrini) which is both practical and true to the original manuscript.