The Heisser and Jude piano duo brings marvelous synchronicity of ensemble to Brahms’ Hungarian Dances and Op. 39 Waltzes while seeking textural variety by way of highlighted inner voices and balance adjustments. All too often, though, the pianists round off phrases in a manner that softens the music’s basic pulse. Take, for instance, Hungarian Dance No. 13, where the staccato bass lines are too spongy and recessed to effectively offset the melody. The pianists’ tapered phrasing where Brahms writes “sostenuto” saps the transitional tang from the composer’s marked two-bar ritard going into the Vivace. In the A major Waltz, the pianists push the famous tune ahead, then pull it back, and wind up taking it nowhere.
To my ears, the duo plays best when it checks its interpretive baggage at the studio door and simply allows Brahms’ ingenuous cross rhythms to speak for themselves, as in the Sixth and Thirteenth Waltzes. In all, you’ll hear more of the music’s sparkle, swing, and simplicity from the Groethuysen/Tan duo, whose hard-to-find Sony disc with the same coupling is worth tracking down, along with Julius Katchen and Jean-Pierre Marty’s classic Hungarian Dances Book 2 (Nos. 11-21) on Decca.
