Yasmin Rowe & Daniel Grimwood at Chichester

 Yasmin Rowe & Daniel Grimwood, Chichester Cathedral, Nov 4

In the Spring of 1971 I was entranced by a mysterious, shadowy sound that had crept into the hit parade among the pop tunes. An Argentinian arranger called Waldo de los Rios had made an easy-access version of K.550, not that it was any trouble to listen to in the first place, and it became the first record I ever bought. Mozart has lasted me much longer than most but by no means all of the Top 20 from those more innocent times. He might have had some stiff competition from Beethoven along the way but here was a chance for him to re-state his case.

Reports of Mozart's manic personality make one wonder what sort of company he would have been but his music exudes great courtesy and with four hands operating on one keyboard, etiquette, consideration and simpatico between the two musicians must be essential, too.

KV. 381's Allegro has pre-echoes of Voi Che Sapete and Eine Kleine in it, as if we were playing 'hidden melody'. Joyfully done by Yasmin and Daniel, they proceeded to Daniel's  serene melodic line over the sway of Yasmin's accompaniment in the Andante. And then the rapid chatter between them in the Allegro Molto was like two gossips with much to tell. The 14yo Mozart was all but fully formed and already providing his unique brand of pleasure.

Not as Schubertian as Schubert usually is, the D. 818 Divertissement is upright and march-y with Daniel's excursions up the keyboard not enough of a clue for me, at least, to recognize it as Franz. The Marcia was a close variation on the same thing with some melody handed across to Yasmin. But the Allegretto was extended into an insistent 'Rondo a l'Hongraise' rather than 'a la Turk'. It could have been made to sound more ferocious but Yasmin and Daniel gave us more range in their intonation and some might have found a seasonably eerie tinge to it before its 'piano' ending.

But on a day when almost anybody could be mistaken for Amadeus, an encore of a swirling, semi-baroque Sonata movement by J.C. Bach was beautifully done and it is much to be hoped that this duet return to Chichester soon-ish, possibly to play all of it. Such duets have a charm all of their own, being the equivalent of riding a tandem in cycling. You know they are in it together, for richer, for better, not poorer or worse.