Before I begin, I must declare an interest: I am a fully paid-up member of the Tal & Groethuysen fan club. They have produced over the past 30-plus years some of the finest recordings in the catalogue of music for two pianists, all for the Sony label. While the husband-and-wife team has provided benchmark recordings of Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms, Sony has, admirably, never batted an eyelid over some of their obscure repertoire for four hands: Koechlin? Wagner? Reger? Gouvy?

If you have not heard the duo’s disc (10/93) of piano duets by Louis Théodore Gouvy (1819 98) you should treat yourself. The new disc opens with his Sonata in D minor for two pianos (1876), a 20-minute three-movement work ending in a riotous Allegro vivo that is a test of technique as much as co-ordination. If you like your Mendelssohn, Bizet, Offenbach and Saint-Saëns with a touch of Alkan’s eccentricity, I think you’ll enjoy Gouvy and wonder why we don’t hear more of him. True, his Lilli Bulléro [sic], Variations sur un air anglais (1877), is less inspired, but it is entertaining enough.

Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen follow that with a change of musical language and another fascinating rarity: the Op 10 Variations written in 1910 by Théophile Ysaÿe (1865-1918), the brother of the far better-known Eugène. Fauré and the Impressionists have left their indelible mark. The disc ends with Tourbillon, a short (4'40") piece by the intriguing Marguerite Mélan-Guéroult (1848-1936), about whom almost nothing is known.

It is dedicated to Saint-Saëns, whose Variations on a Theme of Beethoven precedes it, much-recorded, standard two-piano repertoire. And here this fan has to register his disappointment on two levels: first, the recorded sound. The whole disc suffers from the distant placement of the microphones. This in turn leads to some indistinct passagework, especially when the sustain pedal is used at forte and above. Second, while of course these two fine pianists have no trouble meeting the challenges Saint-Saëns presents (often with a mischievous wink), they do not have the light touch of some other teams – Eden and Tamir in 1967 (Decca, 1/68), say, and Marylène Dosse and Annie Petit in 1974 (Vox) – to say nothing of the élan and sheer excitement that Gilels and Zak brought to the score in 1950 (APR, 9/07).