Piano duo deliver musical perfection

Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire are a rare partnership; little wonder that Deutsche Grammophon wasted no time in making their recital from last year's Salzburg Festival available on CD.

Perhaps the combination of Argentinian and Brazilian heritage has something to do with it, but the mix of poetry, vitality and spontaneity these pianists bring to their music sweeps all before it.

Two-piano transcriptions of Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances and Ravel's La Valse might sound like substitutes for the better-known orchestral versions but, fret not, these scores still have the power to thrill and mesmerise.

As conceived by Argerich and Freire, the Ravel runs from mysterious deep rumblings to almost manic outbursts of waltz-time fury; in between are subtle echoes of a Vienna that once was.

Rachmaninov's triptych of dances delivers fierce, pounding climaxes and yet, when it is time for reflection, the sense of melancholy is heart-rending.

In the wrong hands, Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn can plod, with notes seemingly there for the filling of bars and not much else. Not so with this duo; from the first few phrases, subtle voicings hint at surprises to come. And come they do, as early as the shifts of tempi of the first variation. Throughout, Argerich and Freire discover secret melodies where least expected.

Schubert's Rondo in A major may be titled Grand Rondeau but, with the musicians playing the one instrument, this is very much the intimate territory of music for friends. And they treat it as such with just the right graciousness and attention to detail.

44 Violin Duos for two violins might sound like arid Conservatoire stuff, but not when the composer is Bela Bartok. These short pieces are all based on folksongs - not only from Bartok's native Hungary but also from as far afield as the Ukraine and the Middle East. At times, their resilience and earthiness seem to spring from the soil itself.

Korean sisters Angela and Jennifer Chun, basking in a particularly resonant Harmonia Mundi recording, with a sureness of attack and winningly forthright style, catch them to perfection.