A duo of fine pianists plays three major works, including a new piece by a composer born in Kharkiv in 1955 whose fourth opera, Rosenthal’s Children, caused something of a scandal when premièred back in 2005. Commissioned by tonight’s artists as a reflection piece for Schubert’s D940, Desyatnikov’s work debuted at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2023.

A Rite of Spring to die for as these two young artists enacted the Rite without the help of the score or policeman .They may have been dressed as in a classroom but this was inspired playing of astonishing clarity of thought .

At last the Rite as Stravinsky himself must have imagined it .Silences that became as terrifying as the enormous sonorities created by a masterly use of the pedal .To see Pavel stretched over the keyboard as he enacted the insistent obsessive hypnotic sound with the precision of a Swiss clock whilst Samson added the insinuating bolero type melody deep within the heart of the piano .
A standing ovation was the way of allowing the Wiggies to let off steam as we had all sat petrified by the satanic rites that were being enacted on this hallowed stage .
I doubt even Hitchcock could have directed them better .
The piano tuner doing his bit too in the interval before we touch the sublime heights of Schubert prefaced by an unknown ‘Trompe l’oeil’………hold on to your seats this marvellous voyage of discovery is about to continue as I am reminded of the frescos in Orvieto Cathedral ! ……..More to come when I unfasten my safety belt much later ! Trying hard not to overtake any roaming cyclists of course!

Anything after that must inevitably be an anticlimax .It started with an amplification system that once again robbed me at least, of the bon mots of Pavel although judging by the obvious amusement of some lucky people with specially selected seats where they had more luck of picking up a signal or two!

I got the jist as we heard the piece commissioned by our valiant and gallant young artists that was every so often a mirage of phrases from the Fantasy that we were about to receive -some bits reminiscent of the Rite that we had gratefully digested .

The Schubert Fantasy suffered from trying too hard to be monumental .A scherzo at breakneck speed I would like to see anyone dance to that and a fantasy that was too fantasmagoric trying too hard to find hidden secrets that Schubert had already genially conceived himself .
Pauses that in the Rite were terrifying here were rather obviously prolonged instead of allowing Schubert to know better.However it was a remarkable performance from thinking artists who had gone to great length to ponder and digest without being tied to the printed page or the I pad – if I dare I mention it without receiving a black eye.Their professional presence just highlighted the I pad that is intruding its way side by side into too many solo recitals.
Hats off to these two remarkable musicians who are living searching and dreaming together.

And dream they did in Ravel’s magic ‘Fairy Garden ‘ that they played in response to the ecstatic reception that awaited them after the Schubert .
Maybe they were trying again too hard and delving too deeply or dare I say too much on the surface instead of deep into the notes where the composers own heartbeat can be felt.

But all was forgiven with a barely murmured Chorale Prelude by Bach where their simplicity and sublime beauty allowed Bach to speak through them so directly to us .
Heart to heart is something that will long be remembered in this hallowed hall.
A remarkable concert in so many ways and the birth of a musical partnership of extraordinary importance .