Debussy’s Trois Nocturnes, Wagner’s Tristan Prelude and Brahms’s Piano Quintet, remixed and in a new guise.

This is the metamorphosis of three instrumental masterpieces for the 176 keys of two concert grand pianos; a transformed aural perspective, which brings out compositional structures all the more clearly. In two-piano versions, these pieces are effectively reworked.

With Brahms’s Sonata, op.34b, this was undertaken in 1864 by the composer himself, adapting a string quintet he then withdrew, reinventing it as a piano quintet a year later. With Wagner and Debussy, it was Max Reger and Maurice Ravel who took on the task, surely in part as a mark of their esteem for these works and their authors.

Cleverly devised programmes are the trademark which distinguishes Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher as one of the most internationally renowned piano duos. No other duo runs the gamut from Bach to music of the present day with such aplomb.

Their profound and intimate ensemble playing manifests two musical kindred spirits, unleashing a broad spectrum of expressive potential which perfects the art of piano four hands. Their recording of Philippe Manoury’s Le Temps, mode d’emploi was awarded the Annual German Record Critics’ Award in 2019.