The late Leon Fleisher encouraged Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia to explore Beethoven’s string quartets in four-hand arrangements for performing purposes. The husband-and-wife duo released Op 18 Nos 1, 4 and 6 in 2014 and now follow up with Op 130. The pianists use the Hugo Ulrich/Robert Wittmann transcription for the first five movements, while for Beethoven’s original finale they switch over to the composer’s own four-hand arrangement of the Grosse Fuge. Stephanie and Saar strongly feel that Beethoven’s revised shorter finale is musically less effective, yet I wish they had recorded it as well, at least to allow listeners a choice .

In any event, the music loses nothing in translation, save for the piano’s inherent inability to vary dynamics on sustained notes. Although the pianists coax full-bodied sonorities from their instrument, they convey leanness and transparency through careful attention to balances within chords, inner lines, variety of articulation and the composer’s trademark subito dynamics. In the first movement, you’ll notice how they take every slur and staccato seriously without sounding the least bit rigid, while judging the sudden adagio moments to perfection. They eschew the second movement’s Presto directive for a more deliberate pace that allows the main section’s syncopations and Trio’s triplets to generate more tension and momentum than one often hears when the music is mercilessly driven.

By contrast, the third-movement Andante proves decisively con moto, where the détaché writing sounds spiky yet not percussive; the players’ rhythmic precision creates character and suspense. The ‘Alla danza tedesca’ fourth movement’s seeming simplicity is offset by Beethoven’s unpredictable dynamics, which, of course, Stephanie and Saar take on faith. I suspect that pianistic necessity dictates the faster than usual tempo of the ‘Cavatine’, yet it’s somewhat refreshing to hear this music convey gracefulness rather than anguish. It sets the stage for a grand and majestic Grosse Fuge made up of epic paragraphs and long, intelligently shaped lines, as if the duo were channeling their inner Klemperer – and that’s a supreme compliment!

In Schubert’s ubiquitous F minor Fantasie, Stephanie and Saar find their centre in the turbulent second section, and settle upon an ideal tempo for the Scherzo that allows for both lilt and linear cogency. And by taking time with the finale, Schubert’s fugal writing truly resonates, free of the clutter and stress one often hears. A highly distinctive disc.