Various Composers - American Postcard (Christina & Michelle Naughton)

Information

• John Adams - Short Ride in a Fast Machine (arr. Preben Antonsen)
• Paul Schoenfield - Five Days from the Life of a Manic-Depressive
• Conlon Nancarrow - Sonatina (arr. Yvar Mikhashoff)
• Aaron Copland - El Salón México (arr. Leonard Bernstein)
• John Adams - Roll Over Beethoven (transcr. Preben Antonsen)
• Aaron Copland - Variations on a Shaker Melody (arr. Bennett Lerner)

Christina Naughton & Michelle Naughton, pianos

Date: 2019

Label: Warner Classics

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Review

Most pianophiles, I suspect, have longstanding favourites among piano ensembles. As a child I was smitten with Vronsky and Babin, Luboschutz and Nemenoff, and since then my enthusiasm for the medium hasn’t really diminished. Through the years, a succession of wonderful duos – Argerich and Freire of course, Bresciani and Nicolosi, Egri and Pertis, and naturally the Labèque sisters and the Jussen brothers – have afforded tremendous pleasure. In recent seasons, however, my attention has been increasingly drawn to the American twin sisters Christina and Michelle Naughton, whose third commercial recording (their second for Warner), ‘American Postcard’, has just been released.

What makes them so compelling? Their musical culture is deep-seated and secure; graduates of both Curtis and Juilliard, they seem to have absorbed the best those institutions have to offer while escaping the worst. Both are master pianists: whether in moments of fearsome power or whispered calm, they never exceed the capacities of the instrument, remaining happily within the realm of beautiful, healthy sound. One particularly stunning aspect of their virtuosity is a rhythmic acuity that is incisive, precise and seemingly effortless. Enveloping it all is the Naughtons’ ensemble ethos – a combination of shared kinaesthesia and unity of intent more varied, seasoned and richer than an entire boatload of musicians twice their age.

Fans of Hallelujah Junction in the Naughtons’ last release (5/16) will be happy to know ‘American Postcard’ is anchored by a pair of John Adams pieces. First on the disc is the well-known 1986 orchestral work Short Ride in a Fast Machine in a brilliantly resourceful transcription by Preben Antonsen, the San Francisco-based composer and pianist. The penultimate cut is Roll Over Beethoven, actually a transcription of Adams’s Second String Quartet (2015), also in Antonsen’s superb re conception for piano duet. Like Absolute Jest, Adams’s concerto for string quartet and orchestra, Roll Over riffs on ‘fractals’, or tiny isolated gestures, from Beethoven – in this case drawn from the Sonatas Opp 110 and 111 and the Diabelli Variations. The Naughtons’ identification with the score’s manic humour is infectious.

If these demonstrations of imagination and virtuosity weren’t enough, there is Paul Schoenfield’s Five Days from the Life of a Manic-Depressive, also filled with references to earlier musics, and Yvar Mikhashoff’s 1986 transcription of Conlon Nancarrow’s Sonatina, originally a solo work from the early 1940s. Two Copland pieces provide vivid contrast, Bernstein’s transcription of El Salón México and a delicate, nostalgic scene from Appalachian Spring.

Both as fascinating programming and exhilarating piano-playing, this disc is a joy from beginning to end. The music-making of Christina and Michelle Naughton inspires hope at a time when we could sure use some.

— Patrick Rucker

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Christina and Michelle Naughton (born 2 September 1988) are twin sisters and an American piano duo. Trained at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, they have performed as soloists with leading orchestras across the United States, Europe and Asia, collaborating with prominent conductors. Active recitalists and frequent festival guests worldwide, they appear regularly at major concert halls and cultural institutions. Particularly noted for their commitment to 20th-century American music, the Naughtons have premiered new works and released critically praised recordings on ORFEO and Warner Classics.

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