Both born in Kharkov, Ukraine, Lyubov Bruk (1926-1996) and Mark Taïmanov (1926-2016) met at the Conservatory of their native city at the age of twelve as students of Samari Savchinski who had a determining influence on them.

They fled to Tashkent in Uzbekistan with their teacher during the Second World War and entered the Leningrad Conservatory at the end of the hostilities. As a professional chess player, Mark won several tournaments in the Soviet Union and abroad, and combined his passion for sport with his passion for music. At the time of the publication of the 2-CD set in the series "The Great Pianists of the 20th Century" published in 1998 by Philips, Mark tells in a touching way in the text he wrote for this occasion, the genesis and the evolution of the duo whose triumphant career was limited for reasons of Cold War to the USSR and the so-called popular democracies.

The complicity maintained by the two artists (they married in 1946) took shape at that time; it will be marked by hundreds of concerts, creations for two pianos (transcription of Gayaneh by Khatchaturian, Ouspenski's Concerto...), and the success was always there for a quarter of a century until the breakup of their couple. This was due to the erosion of time and, above all, to Mark's downgrading by the authorities when he was defeated in 1972 by the American Bobby Fischer at the Vancouver Tournament.

From now on, each will play separately: Lyubov with her son Igor Taïmanov in duo until her death in 1996, and as a soloist for Mark who died at the age of 90. The trace of their immense art remains for eternity thanks to the recordings made for the Melodiya label.

Overcoming their differences (the expressive romanticism of one, the lyrical refinement of the other), they achieve a cohesion as much on the level of the sonority dosage as on the palette of colors or the transparency of an organic playing. Rachmaninov's Two Suites for Two Pianos have a sovereign breath and Arensky's Suite No. 2 Op. 23 "Silhouettes" a lightness of touch in apnea. The familiarity with French music (Poulenc's Concerto in D minor and Sonata for Two Pianos, Milhaud's Scaramouche), the balance achieved in Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos KV. 365 and the spidery elegance (Chopin's Rondo for Two Pianos op. 73) are miraculous, constituting an inexhaustible source of inspiration to which every piano duo can turn its attention today.