Music for piano four hands by Raff

[Mark Thomas]

The Swiss piano duo Vilma and Daniel Zbinden (www.zbindenduo.ch) have released a new CD which features half an hour or so's music for piano four hands by Joachim Raff. They play six of Raff's Douze Morceaux Op.82 (Nos.1, 3, 4, 7, 8 & 12 to be exact). As you'd expect from Raff, these are all very attractive pieces and the programme is well chosen, finishing with one of Raff's most well known works - a tarantella entitled The Fisherwomen of Procida. The Zbindens play these pieces with dextrous virtuosity and a light touch, managing to emphasise both Raff's playfulness in several of them and the depth of feeling in others, whilst always celebrating the craft with which Raff put them together.

The rest of the CD is taken up with a short reading in German and Klingende Bilder (Sounding Pictures) by the Swiss composer Fabian Müller (b.1964). These twelve little Alpine pictures last only 18 minutes or so. They don't really qualify for discussion here, but they're not aggressively atonal - atmospheric modern tonal about covers it. The CD comes complete with a colour insert booklet with full notes on the composers and their music in both English and German, and is available direct from Daniel Zbinden (email danielzbinden@gmx). It costs CF20.-.