The 5 Browns (9/28/21)

 Deondra (piano), Desirae (piano), Gregory (piano), Melody (piano), Ryan (piano)

Yes, five sibling pianists. Yes, all five attended Juilliard. Yes, all five are Steinway Artists. Yes, the concert was a ton o’ fun. There was a bit of a stage lighting problem at the very beginning. The stage had been bathed in a nice glow. The pianists entered, bowed, and sat at their keyboards. And sat. Finally a techie realized that they needed more light in order the see their keyboards and each other. Quick fix.

Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 – I. Allegro con brio – L. Beethoven/J. Shumway
“Malaguena” from Andalucia Suite – Ernesto Lecuona
Scenes from West Side Story – L. Bernstein/K. D. Briggs
Flight of the Bumblebee – N. Rimsky-Korsakov/Shumway
Star Wars: Suite for Five Pianos – J. Williams/G. Anderson
Rondo alla Turca – W. Mozart/Anderson
“Clair de Lune” from Suite Bergamasque – C. Debussy/Anderson
Rhapsody in Blue – G. Gershwin/Shumway

I had never seen five grand pianos all together on a single stage until this past Tuesday. Lest you think it was five people just banging away on five pianos, it was decidedly not.

Beethoven. Bum-bum-bum-bum! What a great way to start a concert. I was so intrigued, I only took minimal notes, but at one point the lower notes of the piano(s) were effectively used as timpani rolls. After musical chairs (the pianists moved around and played different pianos from time to time), the two brothers played a mood piece that was also spirited at times. At this point, there was a brief radio interview interlude, as this was a live broadcast on WQXR (and they had a backup plan for the outdoor venue, since the weather had been iffy during the afternoon and early evening).

West Side Story had all five players again, and included finger snaps at the beginning of the suite. It was sort of traditional, in a nontraditional way, focusing mostly on the up tempo, crowd scene numbers, though Tonight was included. I found myself wishing that they would have yelled, “Mambo!” at the appropriate times. Flight of the Bumblebee was pretty much five pianists in perpetual motion, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The Star Wars suite was fun, but some/most of the themes were lost on me. OK, a few were familiar. After another brief radio interview interlude, the Mozart had a slow, gentle opening that then quickly bumped up in tempo. Clair de Lune featured the three sisters all playing one piano. At first, I thought it might be a gimmick, but it was really beautiful, with a more cohesive sound via six hands on one keyboard, as opposed to six hands on three pianos.

Rhapsody in Blue features major piano solos. Here, to me it seemed as though each of the five was the soloist at one time or another.

They had a planned encore in their pocket: Firebird – I. Stravinsky/Shumway. It began with a gentle opening that started to build in intensity, then boom! those driving rhythms that eventually calmed down but led to a strong finish. In an odd twist of events, the lighting went wonky again as the piece wound down, and the five were back into the mood lighting to finish out the piece. Probably not planned—or was it?

ConcertMeister