Naxos deserves commendation for wide-ranging releases which seemingly covers all areas of music, from the mainstream and arcane to the more challenging and specialised. They seem to have released recordings to suit all tastes and at an affordable prices and music to entertain and challenge. Australian music has been covered with fine releases of guitar music and eminent soloists like Diana Doherty and the excellent Goldner Quartet. This new release focusses on music for two pianos by composers familiar and unfamiliar to local audiences.

Viney-Grinberg Duo

Taking its title from a recorded interview with Percy Grainger, the disc opens with two excerpts from his familiar Lincolnshire Posy (Horkstow Grange and The Lost Lady Found) with Robert Davidson’s The Art of Agony sandwiched in between them. This short work is reminiscent of techniques used by Steve Reich in his Different Trains for recorded voice and string quartet. Here, an excerpt from an interview with Grainger is used to provide a similar rhythmic pulse around which Davidson’s part serves to elaborate and define the composer’s speech patterns. All three pieces are of a short duration as are all the selections in the this 50-minute recital.

Matthew...