Two people playing duets on a single piano is a form of chamber music that we do not hear very often. It is even less usual when the two are mother and son, as are Helen and Harvey Davies.  In the home and in piano teaching, it is commonplace, of course, and the co-ordination and sympathy that we expect in those circumstances were very evident in this concert given for the Radlett Music Club.

As the programme demonstrated, composers from the early days of the piano to the present have been inspired by this form. We do not always know why they chose it, but sometimes it provided the extra richness and dynamic range that would later emerge in an orchestral version.  Or, as Harvey, addressing the audience, pointed out, this extra dimension might be valuable in a student work, as was the case in Joubert's Divertimento, opus 2, the first work in the concert. It was easy listening, and at once demonstrated the special techniques required when, for instance, the hands of two players must cross and when one player must use the sustaining pedal for two.

This part of the performance prompted the question that must arise with this form: what can four hands do at one keyboard that two hands cannot? Part of the answer would be heard in Mozart's Sonata in F, K 497, in the potential for interplay of parts and harmonic enhancement.

The three works played after the interval were more challenging. The four hands are vital in Hindemith's Sonata of 1938. It has many moods, and exemplifies the composer's harmonic, rhythmic and dynamic versatility. Co-ordination had to extend even to page-turning!

The two final works were Ravel's suite Mother Goose and Dvorak's Three Slavonic Dances. These are both popular in their orchestral arrangements, which made them very enjoyable to hear; but one could not avoid memories of the orchestral sounds that made it harder to concentrate on the special quality of duets played at one keyboard. As throughout the concert, the polished and expert four-hand accomplishment won our admiration.

Graham Mordue