The “Grand Duo” was composed in the summer of 1824, when Schubert was appointed music instructor to the two daughters of Count Esterházy at Castle Zselíz in Hungary. Around this time, Schubert was being treated for syphilis and struggling as a freelance composer. He wrote his brother that he harbored “the fatal knowledge of our miserable reality, which I attempt to beautify as much as possible through my powers of imagination. …I am now more able to find inner happiness and peace than in the past. You will see the proof of this in a great sonata.” The work is thought to have been influenced by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which had been premiered in Vienna a few months earlier. Its four movements, symphonic in scope and totaling nearly 40 minutes, make severe musical and technical demands on both pianists—far more than any previous work for piano duet. Happily, the Duo d’Accord (Taiwanese pianist Lucia Huang and her German partner, Sebastian Euler) is fully up to the task, despite the players’ relative youth. Their ensemble is razor-sharp, their sound always perfectly balanced, and their conception grand and expressive. From start to finish, they play as one, shaping lines with a conductor’s or singer’s care, without affectedness in the great slow movement or aggression in the two exciting last movements. There have been many fine recordings of this work—including by Eschenbach and Frantz, Barenboim and Lupu, and Tal and Groethuysen—and this one is their equal.

The lovely Rondo was Schubert’s last piece for piano duet, completed in June 1828 and published shortly after his death. It is serene throughout, with gently contrasting themes and none of the grave melancholy that characterized some of his other late works. Huang and Euler play it lovingly and I would place it alongside the live performance by Argerich and Freire. I recommend this disc most highly, and I look forward to acquainting myself with this team’s other recordings, including music by Schumann, Messiaen, and Beethoven.