For many music lovers, the ten-year partnership of Begoña Uriarte and Karl-Hermann Mrongovius has become a benchmark for piano duets. Composers have entrusted premières of their works to them and international critics regale them with superlatives. Now both artists have recorded two key works by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.

Whilst producing many wonderful compositions for orchestra, voice and other instrumental combinations, Johannes Brahms arranged almost all his works, for piano often for four hands and occasionally for two pianos. He did this for a variety of performance demands but also to be able to sell the sheet music for amateur performers in order to make a decent living . One example of this is the Sonata op. 34 which was originally sketched out as a string quartet and later on conceived as a piano quintet. This piece also appears in a version for 2 pianos as his Op. 34b.

In contrast, very little is known about the version for two pianos of Robert Schumann’s Op 44 Piano Quintet. The original work was written in late 1842. The composer’s friend Felix Mendelssohn gave the first performance at a private concert, and his wife Clara (to whom the work is dedicated) premiered it in public a month later. The piece is the first piano quintet of any importance, and is still considered among the very best of its kind.