Until Márta Kurtág’s death in 2019, one of the most delightful musical experiences was to watch and listen to her and her composer husband György playing his piano duets – the playfulness, the quiet intimacy, the way in which the writing meant they crossed arms as if in a gentle game of Twister. But you don’t have to be married to play Kurtág’s duets – just generous with your personal space. Leif Ove Andsnes and Bertrand Chamayou chose eight of them for this recital, performing them alongside Kurtág’s similarly miniature solos and framing them with four works by Schubert, the master piano duet writer of the 19th century.
The Kurtág pieces on the main programme were all from Játékok: translating as Games, this is a collection of mostly tiny piano solos and duets united by their concision and sense of mischief which Kurtág, now 99, has been adding to for half a century. Andsnes’s solo set began with an Evocation of Petrushka that indeed sounded like a sped-up tape of Stravinsky; immediately afterwards there was the contrast of Les Adieux, quietly throbbing into silence, then an about-turn into the frenzied klaxon of Sirens of the Deluge. Chamayou sent his hands cartwheeling repeatedly down the keyboard in The Little Squall, and painted spots of changing colour in Hommage Tardif à Karskaya. Their duets were even more vivid, with Harangok and Kyrie showcasing differing and equally convincing ways of making the piano sound like bells.
