Argerich and Babayan excel at the hard-hitting stuff, which also includes the opening and closing of Babayan’s idiosyncratic Romo and Juliet sequence. The percussive chords at the beginning make a creative virtue out of mere thuds in the original.

Virtually all come off so well in Sergei Babayan’s two-piano arrangements that it is hard to imagine the composer being anything but delighted. This is as much to do with the dash and verve of the performances – vividly recorded – as with the transcriptions themselves…The dazzle factor in this pianistic display is its own justification.

The same spirit of after-hours camaraderie which pervades Argerich’s Lugano Festival recordings is part of what make this Prokofiev double-act such a joy, though credit also due to Babayan’s characterful arrangements (with playing this imaginative you barely miss the orchestral colours); the lesser-known works were welcome discoveries for me, particularly the lugubrious evocation of Hamlet’s father and the equally chilling idée fixe from Queen of Spades.