Mozart / Schubert / Stravinsky: Piano Duos – Argerich

   in Piano International (Jan, 2015)
If there is one disc any pianophile should not miss, it is this one – a recording of a concert given in the Philharmonie in Berlin in April 2014. The long-awaited coming together of two of our finest pianists, the Israeli-Argentinian Barenboim and the Argentinian Argerich, who have worked together on and off since 1949, delivers everything it promises and more.

The Mozart (Barenboim primo) is a masterpiece in chamber music. Energy abounds in the outer movements in different ways: serious, celebratory and full of pomp in the first, scampering in the Finale, unspeakably tender in the Andante. If there is a weakness, it is that the Schubert takes a little …