Steven Osborne, Paul LewisHyperion CDA 67665 ****

The piano duet used to be an important medium in the heyday of domestic music-making, not least in the dissemination of arrangements of orchestral works that were otherwise difficult to hear. Among great composers, Schubert left the largest legacy of original works for four hands on one piano, a legacy that still attracts pianists of the highest calibre. Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne team up for a selection of six of the composer's finest duets, including the wonderful Fantasy in F minor, the Andantino variéin B minor, the Rondo in A, and the Variations in A flat. Those encountering Schubert's duets for the first time will be more than pleasantly surprised. Osborne and Lewis are at times a little formal, as if they sometimes felt a little constrained by sharing the keyboard. Otherwise they fly with Schubertian grace through some of the most inspired music ever conceived for piano duet. See url.ie/4qdb