Carn (1993) for two pianos - Fergus Johnston

Sonata for two pianos and percussion (1937) - Bartok

The Hugh Lane Gallery was well filled on Sunday for a performance of Bartok's seminal sonata for two pianos and percussion, a work which is not often heard because it is difficult to get the right instrumentalists together. It is also an example of the composer at his most uncompromising, devoid of any learning towards the merely sensuous. The performers were faithful to the work's austerity. The acoustic of the Lane Gallery rather blunted the bite of the louder passages, though the textures remained clear.

Clarity was less prominent in Fergus Johnston's Carn; in this work he seems more interested in accumulating layers of sound so that the auditory atmosphere is supersaturated at climaxes. The simple opening leads into a cavern of sound where the pianos reinforce each other's sonorities. The palpable sensuousness of the work made a striking contrast with Bartok's severity.