Piano Duo: Anna & Ines Walachowski
This recording is new and was released on February 23, 2010. It features selections for Dou piano by:
• Brahms, Gabriel Faure, Tchaikovsky, and Stanislaw Moniuszko
Brahms: Hungarian Dances
Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty, Op.64
Several pieces by Faure, as well as Stanislaw Moniuszko.
While I liked the music, I found the playing to be a bit too careful. It seems to me that the charm of the Brahms Hungarian dances is to perform them with the abandon, passion, speed, and even carelessness, to give the listener the feel of the Hungarian folk melodies and dances. If the performer is too ‘careful’, these pieces lose that charm. The Hungarian czardas is a wild and unique dance. Performers have to have the technique and the musical feeling to put that across to the listener.
Here is the violinist, Maxim Vengerov, who tries really hard to get that spirit out there: