One might expect this combination of artists playing Schubert to produce winning results, and so it does. Rarely will you hear duet playing of such refined elegance and multicoloured animation. Here, the playing is more vivid and glamorous than one finds from Isabel Beyer and Harvey Dagul, on their excellent eight-disc survey of Schubert’s piano duets; whereas the Beyer/Dagul duo (on Four Hands Music) invoke the intimacy of the nineteenth-century salon, the dynamic and coloristic range of Barenboim’s and Lupu’s performances suggests a more public environment.
After the spirited brio of the familiar Marches militaires, the remainder of the disc contains music of greater seriousness and architectural breadth. The Variations in A flat are beautifully played: try the section from 10'27'' (track 4) to hear the most subtle and discerning pianism, skilfully integrated with perfect balance and articulation. The largest work on this disc is the C major Sonata: here it runs to 43 minutes, longer than any of Schubert’s solo sonatas. It can reasonably be classed alongside Schubert’s two other late masterpieces in C, the Great Symphony and the String Quintet. The Grand Duo is symphonic in scope and expression (indeed, Schumann believed it to be an arrangement of a proposed symphony), although the writing is innately pianistic. The fine detail of Barenboim’s and Lupu’s account, their diversity of colour and attack and their voicing of melodic and inner lines, suggests an image of suitably orchestral depth and variety. Furthermore, the surface gloss of these performances is underpinned by the most crystalline lucidity and poetry. Excellently recorded, this disc can be warmly recommended.'