With mellifluous tones from the newly-donated Steinway Concert Grand, duetists Joseph Tong and Waka Hasegawa gave a stately beginning to Schubert’s Fantasie in F minor as they passed the themes seamlessly one to another in yesterday’s lunchtime recital.

A statuesque and emphatic slow section then preceded a grand progression to the work’s final resolution.

John McCabe’s recent composition, Upon Entering a Painting, is dedicated to the pianists, and it was not so much hearing paint drying as listening to it dripping in ever-increasing quantities as the layers and colours built up.

This was a deftly-handled four-handed musical painting (though certainly not a quiet landscape) that might well have included fast-flowing water towards the end.

And so to the somewhat more genteel opening picture of Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole. Just as evocative as the previous work, though, and starting with a romantic flourish enclosing the two shorter dances before a reminder of summer days to come perhaps in the warmth of Spain.

The whole programme was played with great panache and sensitivity by this award-winning combination, who made perfect harmony for a lunchtime break.