I greet the Rico Gulda/Christopher Hinterhuber duo with modified rapture. Most of the rapture concerns the music itself. Schubert enriched the piano duet genre with some of his most sublime compositions, five of which encompass this release. In terms of ensemble, the pianists’ flexible phrasings are superbly synchronized and dynamically coordinated. A case in point: their hushed balances and haunting, disembodied shading of the A minor Duo’s second subject, or the subtle emphasis they bring to the composer’s unusual modulations and biting dissonances. Similar intensity and harmonic awareness informs an excellent performance of the A major Rondo.
In the B-flat Variations, however, Gulda and Hinterhuber sound comparatively foursquare and self-aware next to the Piano Duo Schnabel’s lighter-gaited and spontaneous romp through the Finale. It’s one thing to strive for naturalness and relaxation in the F minor Fantasy’s opening section, but the duo’s overly careful pianism tiptoes around the music’s inner urgency (they slowly loosen up as the music progresses). For a lyrical Fantasy, I prefer the added color and motivic interplay that distinguishes the Perahia/Lupu recording.
Gulda and Hinterhuber make a friskier than usual affair out of the Andantino Varié’s middle variations while italicizing local details to a fault in the final, ravishing B major variation. Go back to the old Artur and Karl Ulrich Schnabel recording to hear how it’s possible to bring out all the music’s harmonic and melodic genius through color and inflection alone, with nary a trace of rubato. Sonically speaking, loud passages come off sounding metallic and hollow, while the bass register has little of the roundness and warmth we associate with this repertoire. Keith Anderson’s notes count among the finest Naxos has offered.
