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CD
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NEOS 20801CD
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2009 release. Orchestral music rendered for piano four hands, delivered on the dot and with nothing fancy: Franz Schubert's "Grand Duo" dating from 1824 is heard here against the 5th Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovitch from 1937 (in a version authorised by the composer). It represents a reduction of a real orchestral sound -- a romantic expression of will, one which exploits the possibilities of the instrument to the full, and beyond maybe, too. There emerges a solidity which becomes almost uncanny -- the ambivalence of the lyrical passages held between great blocks of sound. A sense of historical distance is not masked, but deliberately cultivat¬ed; in our mind the impending thunder of the "Grand Duo" is somewhat irritating when compared to the strident final cadences of the symphony. Performed by the GrauSchumacher Piano Duo.
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