There’s not much I can say about their playing other than it was done with the perfect execution that one could expect of a pair that has been working together for 13 years; they are in perfect synchrony: by ear, one might think that the piano had been played by a man with 10 fingers in each hand.
I particularly enjoyed the three military marches (which didn’t sound too martial to me), the first of the three Hungarian dances played, Hungarian Dance N.º 1 in G Minor by Johannes Brahms, which could have done with the help of some dancers, and York Bowen’s “Nocturne”, part of Suite in Three Movements, Op.52.
While enjoying the programme, comprised of Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and York Bowen, I couldn't help to wonder about the details that surely must be sorted when your hands are half a piano four hand. I mean, what if you get tired of the left side of your partners’ face? Or something less dramatical: what if you want to play a bit slower, or are failing to execute a bar properly and the other part is forced to rehearse with you? What if at some point, some day, you can’t help yourself and blurt out to your partner: “for five years you’ve pressed the pedals while I just turned the pages. This shall not go on for another second”. Do you then put an advert in your local paper: “Wanted: left-most part of a piano four hand”?
I was ruminating about all these things when, halfway through the concert, Messrs. Gough and Kimmance switched places, becoming Messrs. Kimmance and Gough, and solving all my dilemmas.
This Midweek Music season is over and it has been the best I’ve witnessed so far. I’m saddened about the void that I’ll feel every Wednesday’s afternoon– until September, that is, when the program is scheduled to resume on the 18th.