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Saint-Saëns: Works for Piano Duo, Vol 2 - Poskute, Daukantas

Saint-Saëns: Works for Piano Duo, Vol 2 - Poskute, Daukantas

Ars Produktion  ARS 38 038

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical


Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns: "Étienne Marcel" (excerpts, arr. Debussy), Samson and Delilah (excerpts, arr. Dukas), Berceuse Op. 105, Pas redoublé Op. 86, Carnival of the Animals

Vilija Poskute (piano)
Thomas Daukantas (piano)
Musikerinnen und Musiker des Tonhalle-Orchesters Zürich

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Review by Adrian Quanjer - July 30, 2016

ARS-Produktion has recorded the piano duo Vilija Poskute & Tomas Daukantas four times: Two volumes with Saint-Saëns, one with Franck and one album with Grieg duos for four hands and/or two pianos. Both musicians come from Vilnius, Lithuania; they studied together and they stayed together. An ideal situation, giving them a head start compared to ad-hoc combinations, however good they individually may be. Their home-base is now Switzerland after having finalized their musical education in Winterthur.

Compositions for two pianos or one piano four hands only, is limited, though still more than one would assume. However, many transcription and arrangements have been added as may be concluded from these (and other) recordings. One might say that Poskute/Daukantas have built up a considerable repertoire of ‘Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue’, in other words: music to suit many tastes.

Best is to buy them all, but if one had to choose, I would go for this one, as it gives three world premieres and two originals, one of which is ‘Le Carnaval des animaux’ in a ‘salon’ version, which I quite liked. I prefer it over the professionally excellent, but somewhat distant piano rendition with Lortie & Mercier and the Bergen Symphony in chamber format (Saint-Saëns: Cello Concertos, Le carnaval des animaux - Mørk, Lortie, Mercier, Järvi). I find the ARS recording more realistically piano friendly, while the accompaniment adds an engaging sense of understated Swiss humour with just 8 members of the Zürch Tonhalle Orchestra (string quartet, double bass, flute, clarinet and xylophone/harmonica).

As far as I have been able to judge by listening to the above disks, a mostly delicate and light style seems to be this duo’s trade mark. Moreover, their faultless interplay lets the music flow from the piano(s) into a sound picture of pure delight. Never aggressive, as if wanting to make a statement; always committed to musicality. This dedicated and often affectionately witty attitude characterizes their lighthearted interpretation of Claude Debussy’s arrangement of seven ‘Airs de ballet’ from the opera ‘Étienne Marcel’, and Paul Dukas’ arrangement of three pieces from ‘Samson and Dalila’. This surely must have helped to paving their way to national and international recognition.

I have greatly enjoyed their spontaneity and I hope that others will, too.

For more I would recommend to sample their interpretation of the ‘Variations sur un theme de Beethoven’ for two pianos Op. 35, as included on Saint-Saëns: Works for Piano Duo, Vol 1 - Poskute, Daukantas, some of Cesar Franck’s lyrical pieces on Franck: Works for Piano Duo - Poskute, Daukantas, as well as a particularly smooth and unhurried ‘Holberg Suite’ on their latest disk: Grieg: Works for Piano Duo, Vol 1 - Poskute, Daukantas.

Vilija Poskute & Tomas Daukantas would, as far as I’m concerned, do the hi-res community a tremendous service if they were to put on ARS-Produktion record some double concertos, for which I would recommend the seldom recorded Mendelssohn concerti in E major and A-flat major, both fitting quite nicely on one disk, to replace (or add to) the ageing (1995) remastered Stereo Single Layer account of Mendelssohn: Complete Concertos - Brautigam, Derwinger, Pöntinen, van Keulen, Markiz.

Blangy-le-Château
Normandy, France

Copyright © 2016 Adrian Quanjer and HRAudio.net

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Comment by hiredfox - August 30, 2016 (1 of 1)

I simply adore this disc and am in complete agreement with Adrian.