Classical home listening - a fab piano four hands, Louise Farrenc and the Proms

The Guardian 0

Kirill Gerstein and Ferenc Rados play Mozart; the French composer’s symphonies are a revelation; and it’s back to the Royal Albert Hall…

• Playing piano four hands – two people, one piano – is among the more intimate forms of music-making. Daniel Barenboim never passes up a chance to play duets with his childhood friend Martha Argerich: you hear that intimacy in their recordings. But this “domestic” music can also sound grand, exuberant, revolutionary. In Mozart: Sonatas for Piano Four Hands KV521 & KV497 (Myrios Classics), the Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein sits down with Ferenc Rados, a Hungarian legend among musicians. His pupils, among others, include András Schiff. Consider that. The notes tell how a young Gerstein met Rados, now 86, at a masterclass at Prussia Cove, Cornwall in 2004. “My playing irritated [Rados] so much that these three hours seemed like a public dismemberment.” Gerstein went on to study with Ferenc, and calls him the biggest influence in his musical life.

The C major sonata, here, is witty, bold, conversational, with plenty of spontaneous ornaments from Gerstein. The F major (with Ferenc playing “primo”) has an almost symphonic grandeur and weight. Documenting this reluctant maestro’s nuanced, muscular playing for posterity was Gerstein’s aim. The disc is one to treasure.