Messiaen’s two-piano cycle Visions de l’Amen hardly lacks for first-rate recordings, yet there’s always room for a strong new contender. In contrast to the subtle synchronicity and gorgeously melded concert grands heard in the Steven Osborne/Martin Roscoe traversal on Hyperion, Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher play instruments whose basic timbres are distinct enough to underscore the composer’s separation of powers, so to speak (he assigns Piano 1 most of the decorative writing, while Piano 2 gets the big themes).

More significantly, the unflagging energy and sweep the pianists bring to the full-throated, extrovert writing in the long ‘Amen du desir’ (No 4) and the finale’s exultant last pages convey Messiaen’s ecstatic, uplifting intentions without ever sounding episodic or bombastic. The intensity of the declamatory octaves and bustling chords of ‘Amen des étoiles, de la planète à l’anneau’ particularly hits home, although the playing grows slightly heavier as the movement progresses. Here I prefer the diversity of touch, dynamic gradation and texture Osborne and Roscoe obtain. At the same time, Grau and Schumacher make No 5’s chattering birdsong evocations lighter and more playful.

György Kurtág’s stark and transparent arrangement of Schütz’s Die sieben Worte for one-piano-four-hands adds up to a slow, contemplative prelude that assiduously slips into the agonising quiet of Messiaen’s opening movement: an unusual and effective programming idea. In all, this well recorded and thoughtfully annotated German Radio production is worth hearing.