Schubert 4 Hands: music from 1828

Some soul-searching lat Schubert today by two latter-day piano mastees. Leif One Andsnes and Bertrnd Chamayou are both poets of the piano (think long the likes of Murray Perahia). All the works date from the last year of Schubert's life.

The duo start with Schubert's best-loved piece for two pianos, the Fantasia in F-Minor, a work of heavenly, slow unfolding. While honouring the musicality of Schubet's score, Chamayou and Andsnes' performance is dipping in beauty. Here's a film; and he's the full piece on a video of a live performance:

The Scherzo scampers fetchingly; the slow movement is imposing, he fir satisfying.

I'm old enough to have bought the Christoph Eschenbach/Justus Franz performance (EMI) on LP. Here it is, on reissue, but a fascinating alternative take, less streamlined perhaps:

... and, to remind ourselves of two legends in this piece, here's Sviatoslav Richter and Benjamin Britten:

While the Fantasie shows Schubert's expertise on a lage canvas in four movements, the Allegro in A mioor is no less imposing (and just slightly shorter) Chamyou and Andsnes respond better tn his, than ny perfomance I have heard of this piece, the dialogues between treble and bass perfectly done, the sense of power ideal (and it does not sound like an orchestral erduction!).

The Fugue in E-Minor is a haven of slowly uncoiling calm, music of transcrndental beauty. And what a lovely (lamos cheeky?) end. The Rondo in A, D 951, exemplifies the beauty and the "rightness" of Schubert's melody at the end of his life (it dates from June 1828). It takes.special type of performance to reveal the, and this one is ideal. Particularly noteworthy are Andsnes' (primo here) decorations:

I have to confess to warming to the "fillers" more than to the Fanrasie performance here, and the run time (49 minutes) is low. Having said this, there is much to enjoy, and the recording is excellent, as one might expect from this source.

PS apologies for repost and a missed day this week: we had some issues with our provider ghost.org, which have now, thankfully, been resolved.

The disc is available at 12% off at Amazon here. Streaming below.