The classical concert as crowd-pleasing spectacle has a long, gaudy history – prodigies playing pianos behind their backs, orchestras of hundreds and choirs of thousands, cameo appearances by livestock, artillery batteries and pyrotechnic displays that always made an impression and on
at least one occasion (the premiere of Handel’s “Royal Fireworks Music”) sent crowds running for their lives.Nothing of that sort greeted listeners at the Richmond debut of The 5 Browns, the piano-playing siblings Deondra, Desirae, Gregory, Melody and Ryan Brown.
Still, the sight of five topless concert grands arranged in fan shape, and the sound of all five pianists (facing their keyboards, thank you) bearing down on the big chords of the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, “Mars” from Holst’s “The Planets” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Grieg’s music for “Peer Gynt,” qualified as spectacular by today’s tame recital standards. Spoken introductions bubbling with youthful enthusiasm and hip wardrobing (sharkskin, spiked heels, chinos and jeans) loosened things up even further.
Audience-friendly as they are, the Browns, ranging in age from 23 to 30, are well past their prodigy years and, outside the uptempo, high-volume showpieces, perform as one would expect of Juilliard-schooled grownups. Each could thrive in a solo career. Gregory could give Lang Lang a run for his dazzle. Desirae and Deondra could rival the Labeque sisters among duo-pianists.
All five have technique to burn, showed off by Gregory in Prokofiev’s Toccata, Gregory and Ryan in the “Grande Tarantelle” of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Desirae and Deondra in “Braziliera” from Milhaud’s “Scaramouche,” Gregory and Melody in “Fêtes” from Debussy’s Nocturnes, and Desirae, Deondra and Melody in Rachmaninoff’s “Valse and Romance.”
Each also revealed a keen ear for color and sonority and sensitivity to mood and spirit. On that score, the evening’s standout was Melody, capturing the elusive combination of passion and repose in Brahms’ Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118, No. 2.
Among the orchestral pieces arranged for five pianos, the most successful (and least doctored) was Greg Anderson’s version of the “Danse macabre” by Saint-Saëns, whose colors and sound effects proved nicely transferable to keyboards and whose nervy urgency fits this group's collective temperament.