Hans Gál, whose large output included operas, cantatas, symphonies and concertos, was born near Vienna, of Hungarian Jewish extraction. In 1929 he became director of the Conservatory in Mainz, Germany, but after the rise to power of the Nazis in 1933 he was instantly dismissed and his works banned. In 1938 the Anschluss forced him to flee to England, with the intention of eventually emigrating to America.

However, a chance meeting led to an invitation to Edinburgh University, where he was to be a lecturer for many years. Just before he died at the age of ninety-seven he saw incipient recognition of his major compositional achievement. He was never self-seeking; his integrity never allowed him to abandon the Austro-German classic-romantic tradition or to adopt trends or ‘isms’, and the acclaim he received for his books, including studies of Brahms and Schubert, sadly eclipsed his work as a composer.

This recording had a very brief appearance on the Olympia label in 2001/2 and is now widely available for the first time.

With CDs approaching forty in number and a busy concert schedule stretching back more than a quarter of a century, the British piano duo Goldstone and Clemmow is firmly established as a leading force. Described by Gramophone as ‘a dazzling husband and wife team’, by International Record Review as ‘a British institution in the best sense of the word’, and by The Herald, Glasgow, as ‘the UK’s pre-eminent two-piano team’, internationally known artists Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow formed their duo in 1984 and married in 1989.

Their extremely diverse activities in two-piano and piano-duet recitals and double concertos, taking in major festivals, have sent them all over the British Isles as well as to Europe, the Middle East and several times to the USA, where they have received standing ovations and such press accolades as ‘revelations such as this are rare in the concert hall these days’ (Charleston Post and Courier).

In their refreshingly presented concerts they mix famous masterpieces and fascinating rarities, which they frequently unearth themselves, into absorbing and hugely entertaining programmes - their numerous BBC broadcasts have often included first hearings of unjustly neglected works, and their equally enterprising and acclaimed commercial recordings include many world premières.