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In celebration of their thirtieth anniversary as a duo, David Nettle and Richard Markham concentrate on the output of a composer who didn't write a single piece of original piano duo music.
Yet, as the informative self-penned booklet note suggests, it was a form in which Brahms still managed to exert his mastery, with none of the transcriptions here sounding like dutiful scholarly arrangements.
However the possibility remains that in a work on a grand scale such as the Piano Quintet, interest can be lost through the relative lack of options where colour and texture are concerned.
Happily all that is cast aside in Nettle & Markham's serious yet vibrant interpretation. With music as contrapuntally involved as this the two pianos bring out the counter rhythms and the snappy, incisive playing of both ensure maximum impact for the first movement.
Occasionally the duo overplay this, and the end to the Scherzo is rather too savage, a mood that carries briefly into the last movement. Yet the range of the duo's expressive scale can be witnessed in the slow movement and the soft, barely audible beginning. Throughout a sense of drama is tangible, with thirty years' familiarity evident in the well nigh flawless ensemble.
After such a grand scale opening the duo kick back with the five waltzes giving light relief, along with a sense that this is the sort of music Nettle & Markham thrive on most. The crisp and sprightly B major waltz gives way to a lyrical E major, lovingly played, the pianists' sense of rubato appropriately applied.
The St. Anthony Chorale variations - known as the 'Haydn' variations rather less now due to the dubious nature of the theme's attribution - are also despatched with musicality and no little flair.
Each variation is strongly characterised - a strident sixth variation one of the standout features - and here also the duo bring out impressive variety of colour and expression. The solemn theme finds a more humourous take in the fifth and eighth variations, while the Grazioso seventh is just that, leaning nicely into the rhythms.
Such has been the Nettle-Markham contribution to the two-piano repertoire, it's a surprise to find this is their first recording of these works - and if you harbour doubts on the medium, this will help dispel the fears.
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