John O'Conor, Philip Martin (pianos)

Variations on a Theme of Paganini - Lutoslawski

Variations on a Theme of Paganini - Lutoslawski

Sonatina - Joan Trimble

Scaramouche - Milhand

Dialogues - Philip Martin

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Suite No 2, Op 18 - Rachmaninov

It was a happy idea of John O'Conor and Philip Martin to celebrate the year of their 50th birthdays by giving a recital of piano duos in the RDS last week. The RDS commissioned a piece from Philip Martin for the occasion and provided a birthday cake in the shape of a grand piano, white, with candles.

The two players may have been born under the same star as well as in the same year for they played as one, delighting equally in Lutoslawski's playful Variations on a Theme of Paganini and Rachmaninov's powerful and characteristic Suite No 2. On the whole the programme was suitably lighthearted: the tone was set by Lutoslawski; Joan Trimble's Sonatina was an adventurous exploration and extension of Irish idioms, totally free of self-importance; Milhaud's always popular Scaramouche was a holiday trip to pre-war Paris and its music-halls and Philip Martin's Dialogues was full of impish humour, though he did, mistakenly I think, allow some seriousness to creep in to what he called a piece about "dynamics". It was fun; but the players were so intent on getting the dynamics and the timing correct that the Dialogues lacked the spontaneity one associated with friendly conversations; and the serious bits, even though shared between two pianos, seemed like monologues. Without them, however, the dance themes might have been less catchy.

Rachmaninov's massive Suite was the most testing and the most gripping of the works on the programme, making full use of the rich sonorities of the two pianos. Here I felt that the players had not fully entered into the mood of the music and from time to time allowed the musical tension to slacken. Perhaps it might have been better to have placed the suite first and ended with Lutoslawski's joyous iconoclasm.