“The greatest single strength of the duo Linda Leine and Daria Marshinina is their stage presence. It’s impressive how these young artists can spontaneously reach the audience with their musical radiance and creative power” – words, which a young piano duo would like to have framed, above all as they come from the world-famous pianist Lilya Zilberstein.

The Muscovite Daria Marshinina and Linda Leine from Riga first met in Hamburg in 2011. Both women were studying piano at the College of Music and Theatre, and neither had any intention of forming a piano duo. But one day, they sat together at the piano and practiced a piece for four hands. This moment still holds a certain magic for the two pianists. Their joint projects and ideas were so extraordinarily good that they received support from the Hamburg Claussen-Simon Foundation. And then one thing led to another. First, the desire for a debut recording grew. The programme should show the versatility of the duo’s repertoire, and also represent a quite personal selection. Daria Marshinina suggested the Concerto per due pianoforti soli by Igor Stravinsky. “For me, it’s pure adrenaline, when we play this piece together” she says.

Linda Leine was clear she wanted to involve her compatriot Pēteris Vasks in this debut recording. She actually has a personal connection with him, as he was her composition teacher in Riga. At a joint meeting in Riga, the two women worked with Pēteris Vasks on his Music for Two Pianos, which he had composed in 1974. “It’s an honour, to be the first to record the piece on CD”, says Linda Leine with unmistakable pride. The third composer for this recording was found quite quickly: The early Romantic, Franz Schubert. A composer, whose repertoire piano duos also like to be measured by. The Leine-Marshinina piano duo sees the piano challenge in these pieces in a quite different light: “The Divertissement D823 and his Rondo D608 open our hearts, allow us to sing at the piano, and take us through the highs and lows of a lifetime.”