I had little idea what to expect from this record, with the names of neither the performers nor some of the composers meaning much to me. I see, though, that RF reviewed enthusiastically a previous collection by the same piano duo (FHM821, 12/82). As he said then, Beyer and Dagul are a husband-and-wife team from St Albans, who have been playing together now for over 30 years. And evidently those 30 years must have provided a good many people with a great deal of pleasure if this record is anything to go by, for both the playing and the selection of pieces serve to provide rare delight.
Here tenderness and humour—a combination to be treasured—sit happily side by side. The former is to be found in abundance, for instance, in Chaminade's delightful Intermede and Bernard Stevens's charming Birthday song, while the latter appears above all in Lord Berners's witty Strauss, Strauss et Straus, in which the inflated gestures of Johann, Richard and Oscar are somewhat cruelly satirized. And, while such pieces as Moszkowski's Spinning Song or Henry F. Gilbert's absolutely splendid ragtime dance (for me the 'find' of the collection) demonstrate the treasures to be found in the recesses of the duettists' repertory, the more familiar national dances of Dvorak and Grieg serve to demonstrate the spontaneity, freshness and perfect rapport of this duo's interpretations. The record is admirably recorded, and I do commend it to those interested in something a little different.'