For those unaware, Humans’ hope lies in art - the music of Schubert or Beethoven in particular, which gives us some idea of what worlds can still exist. What words can we use to make these works of art tangible? Not explainable, but tangible.

With this album, Turkish-born pianist Gülru Ensari and Romanian-born Herbert Schuch want to provide a space for experience, a place where they can carefully and tentatively approach the subject of eternity.

The connection between Messiaen and Schubert, Beethoven and Brahms? Nothing more or less than a perceived truth. An involuntary connection of lines that are already there, but are drawn into infinity and meet somewhere, like the parallel rails of a dead-straight track that stretches into infinity.

Ten years after his captivating recital, ‘Invocation’, the excellent German pianist, Herbert Schuch, born in 1979 in Romania, comes back to naïve. It is here, with his duo partner and wife, Gülru Ensari, that he presents his new album, ‘Eternity’.

As they did in their past collaborations with the SWR (‘Go East!’ in 2017, ‘Dialogues’ in 2018 and ‘in Search’ in 2022), they mix, within one programme, works for four hands and two pianos.

One of the Schubert’s late masterworks, the Fantasia in F minor, pairs here with the Variations on a theme by Schumann that Brahms composed on a theme that Schumann wrote in 1854. Three extracts from Messiaen’s monumental cycle Visions de l’Amen, composed in 1943 for two pianos, act as grandiose and contemplative interludes, and also as an introduction to the Große Fugue by Beethoven.

For Gülru Ensari and Herbert Schuch, each of these three works from the Romantic era connects with the divine part of Messiaen’s pieces.

In pushing back the limit of artistic creation, these four uncontested geniuses - Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Messiaen - expressed themselves outside of their times, creating bridges with worlds they would not have known, always expanding, in a never-ending quest for eternity.

1. Schubert: Fantasie in F minor for piano duet, D940
2. Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen: IV. Amen du Désir
3. Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Schumann in E-Flat Major, Op. 23
4. Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen for 2 pianos
5. Beethoven: Grosse Fuge in B flat major, Op. 134 (piano 4 Hands)

This masterfully-crafted recording opens on the abundantly delicate gossamer that flows within the simply beautiful Fantasie in F minor for piano duet, D940, and follows that up with the more crystalline Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen: IV. Amen du Désir, and then comes Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Schumann in E-Flat Major, Op. 23: which opens on the delicate Thema. Leise und innig and the enigmatic Variation I. L’istesso tempo - Andante molto moderato, before bringing us the playful Variation II, the confident Variation III, the languishing Variation IV, and then the strident flow that drives Variation V. Poco più animato, the adamant ebb of Variation VI. Allegro non troppo, the elegant Variation VII. Con moto - L’istesso tempo, the free flowing swirls and twirls of Variation VIII. Poco più vivo, culminating in the unabashed confidence shown within Variation IX and the joyfully crafted Variation X. Molto moderato, alla marcia.

Along next is the simply mesmerizing two-piece Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen for 2 pianos, which itself begins with the subtle, yet confidently assured Amen des Anges, des Saints, du chant des oiseaux, ending with the veritably ethereal Amen de la Création, the collection coming to a close on the powerful on minute, then delicate and wistful, but at all times organically sculpted, 15 minute piano work Beethoven: Grosse Fuge in B flat major, Op. 134 (piano 4 Hands).

Official Purchase Link

www.avie-records.com

www.gulruensari.com