Pierre-laurent Aimard & Tamara Stefanovich Queen’s Hall

All five stars are for the sizzling celestial repartee between pianists Pierrelaurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich in Messiaen’s Visions de l’amen. He gives each pianist a distinct character and register; Aimard taking for the most part the growling bass narrative while Stefanovich beautifully evoked the stars, birds and pealing bells.

The work begins with uneven rhythms that slowly drift apart, representing the chaos of creation, before the battle of the planets, a sparky interchange between the two pianists.

They took us on an intense emotional journey, bringing out Messiaen’s gorgeous translucent resonances and distinctive and unsettling dischords, leaving the listener all the richer for the experience.

There’s a dearth of repertoire for two pianos partly because it is such a tricky combination to bring off. While Messiaen’s exchange was dynamic, Brahms’s Sonata for two pianos in F minor fails to make the most of having two pianos.

While Aimard and Stefanovich excelled at delivering the expansive themes and torrents of notes, for the most part they were in unison or echoing each other.

Apart from two pianos having more volume than one, it was only in the lively scherzo that there was a sense of two characters having a conversation.