If you’re in the market for piano duets that blend the complacent craftsmanship of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words with Schumann’s lyrical urgency and obsessive dotted rhythms, Julius Röntgen’s Op. 4 might just be your ticket to paradise. From Younger Days encompasses 14 delightful, childhood-inspired miniatures. The tunes always remind you of other composers, like Schubert in the March (No. 12), or the swaggering, Magyar side of Brahms in No. 14. But what catchy tunes they all are! Brahms’ influence truly permeates the Theme with Variations, an effective work that might best be described as the shadow government backing up Brahms’ own Handel Variations. And the Hamburg master’s benign hand informs Röntgen’s meaty Op. 16, particularly in the Introduction’s contrapuntal severity and deep, dark pedal points, along with the displacements of phrase against the basic meter in the Scherzo’s trio. On the other hand, you could liken the last movement’s uplifting main theme to Dvorák’s sunnier finales, albeit with Röntgen’s own flair for virtuosic piano writing.
The Köln duo plays with its usual unanimity of ensemble, healthy musicality, sixth sense for textural variety, and loving preperation from top to bottom. We shouldn’t say that these pieces need not be recorded again, but the Kölner Duo’s standards will be difficult to beat. In sum, this is a must-have for lovers of keyboard rarities and for piano-duet mavens perpetually on the lookout for undiscovered four-hand treasures.
