It’s two-piano time in New York – go figure. On Wednesday night, Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman paired up for a recital at Avery Fisher Hall. At the end of this month, Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire will play at Carnegie Hall. (That is, if Ms. Argerich doesn’t cancel, which is not something to bet the children’s milk money on.) And at the beginning of May, James Levine and Evgeny Kissin will give a four-hand recital, also at Carnegie Hall. That is not the same as a duo-piano recital – only one keyboard is involved – but close enough.

Somewhere, Gold and Fizdale – probably the most celebrated duo-piano team in memory – must be smiling. (Both men died in the 1990s.)

To make matters even curiouser: The most popular duo pianists today are the Labeque sisters, Katia and Marielle. In this same period – on April 15 at Carnegie Hall – Katia will be heard, but accompanying the violinist Viktoria Mullova, in recital. She will look practically naked without her sister (though, given some of their publicity materials over the years, that shouldn’t be novel).

At any rate, Messrs. Ax and Bronfman are a longstanding team, and that collaboration includes CDs: Their latest is an all-Brahms affair. They played no Brahms on Wednesday night, however, except at encore time.

Their program opened with Schumann’s Six Canonic Studies for Pedal Piano, Op. 56. A pedal piano was – is – a normal piano, but rigged with a pedal keyboard. Very few composers have ever written for it. But Schumann did, and in 1891 his “canonic studies” were arranged for two pianos by Debussy. They are interesting pieces, both for their craft and for their musical felicity. They deserve a better performance than they got from Messrs. Ax and Bronfman.

In general, these pieces were over pedaled and undercoordinated. The first one was muddy. The second needed more of a singing line from both pianists (and it, too, was soupy, if not exactly muddy). No. 3 was rather grand for the dear thing it is – and the pianists were not together in the final measures, which was par for the course. No. 4 was slopped through, particularly by Mr. Ax. In No. 5, we were relatively free of mud, but the accents were overemphasized, almost vulgar. The sixth passed decently.

Next came some Debussy proper, his “En blanc et noir,” actually intended for two pianos. (Not long ago, the San Francisco Symphony commissioned an orchestral arrangement.) Messrs. Ax and Bronfman were excellent in the first movement: focused and persuasive. This was probably their best playing of the night. Mr. Ax’s accents were forceful but not harsh; Mr. Bronfman contributed some nice jazz touches. The second movement featured sensitivity on the part of both pianists. Invocations of “Ein’ Feste Burg” – representing Germans in the first war – were appropriately creepy. But it would have been so pleasurable to have a together ending. The third and final movement of this unusual work was creditable.

I should tell you something about Mr. Bronfman. At the end of the second movement, a few audience members clapped, thinking the work had finished. Mr. Bronfman nodded to them humorously. That reminded me of a Mostly Mozart Festival concert last summer, in which Mr. Bronfman – with a shrug – stood and bowed after a middle movement. The audience had applauded, and he had acknowledged it, in the fashion of performers past.

The first half of the Ax/Bronfman recital ended with “La Valse,” Ravel’s beloved essay on Vienna. Coincidentally, Louis Lortie played the solo-piano version of this work in Carnegie Hall the other week – and played it well. Messrs. Ax and Bronfman were not so impressive. They were technically competent, fixed on their scores. But where was charm, where was flair, where was fizz? So too, where was shape? The pianists played one passage after another, sort of dutifully, without really feeling the whole. Climactic moments were hardly climactic. The paying public deserved better, frankly.

Offered after intermission was one work, Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” which the composer wrote out for two pianos as he composed. There was some good playing in “Rite.” For example, Mr. Bronfman showed some of his nice matter-of-factness. And Mr. Ax demonstrated some of his characteristic smoothness. Usually, there was an apt balance between the two men. And they brought out the beauty in this work, as well as the frenzy. But there might have been more rhythmic snap, more aliveness, more …musical oomph. You had the impression of two capable pianists reading through. Again, that’s fine, for after dinner – but this was a big-time professional gig.

I might add that one missed orchestral color in “Rite,” a thoroughly orchestral work. To that end, however, there was a tambourine tapping at various points. Where was it coming from? I couldn’t tell, for some time, from where I was sitting. But it turned out it was coming from one of the page turners, Mr. Ax’s. At the end, he came out to take a bow with the pianists. A lovely democratic touch!

The sole encore was the slow movement from Brahms’s F-minor sonata, an unbelievably beautiful – quintessentially Brahmsian – thing. It was okay. And this was the quality of the recital in general. Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman can do better, both individually and collaboratively, and they will do better. They have been smart to develop side-careers as duo pianists. Variety is a spice of music, don’t you agree?