I began with Suite No 2 for no other reason than I felt like listening to something robust and bracing. And that is exactly what I got – a muscular, tightly synchronised and rhythmically perky account of this wonderful score. It was recorded in the concert hall at Kings Place, London, a good choice for two reasons: first, the acoustic is neither studio-dry or resonantly awash, while airy enough to capture the music’s busy detail and the wide dynamic range of the two Steinways; second, the venue is where Owen and Apekisheva hold their now annual London Piano Festival, which they founded in 2016.

The two have been playing together for just over 30 years, and it shows: the subtle give-and-take, the wonderfully precise ensemble and the feel of long acquaintance with the music. If Argerich and Freire remain sui generis in the Tarantelle finale, storming home in 5'30", a full 40 seconds ahead of the newcomers (their triplet repeated notes at presto are quite something), Owen and Apekisheva offer a convincing alternative.

To then go to the Barcarolle of Suite No 1 presents a pleasant surprise for here the duo conjure up a quite different palette of colours, Impressionistic almost, and highly atmospheric. Where the repeated figuration of this movement can sometimes make it seem overlong, one was happy to drift along, as it were, with the narrative of the Lermontov poem that inspired it. No less successful are the duo’s responses to the other three ‘musical pictures’ (the composer’s description), culminating in that extraordinary and joyful depiction of Easter bells.

Even though there is no record of Rachmaninov himself playing the Six Morceaux of 1894 either in public or in private – as Julian Haylock in his booklet note posits, it is almost as though he tried to disown them – it seems that ‘he couldn’t help but produce music of captivating enchantment’. Quite right. Personally, I would have placed these piano duets after Suite No 1 but it does provide the duo with a suitably triumphant conclusion to their highly recommendable disc with a rousing account of ‘Slava!’.