Lots of pianos

Mozart Concertos K.242, K. 365 and K.466; Andreas Schiff, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Georg Solti, pianists; The English Chamber Orchestra; Sir Georg Solti, conducting

In the autumns of 1980 and 1981, the Brookings chapter of the National Guild of Piano Teachers held a multiple piano concert. They rented the Peterson Recital Hall at SDSU and rented five pianos to share the stage with the resident Mason and Hamlin concert grand. Nearly one hundred piano students participated, at one point having thirty fingers gunning for action at each piano. They would start with the students who had been studying piano for only a few years and work their way up to the more advanced students.

I remember being included on a piece that had one person at each piano. And then another piece had four pianists at two pianos, but since we had six pianos, we had three pianists playing each part. Since there were only two young – men? – can I say men? – we were only 15 and 16 years old – okay, I’m going to say young men, my friend Del L. and I were always put at the same piano. As the grand finale at each concert, the teachers gathered at the pianos. One of those years they played the “Jamaican Rhumba” by Arthur Benjamin.

Much has been made recently of the 5 Browns. I think that the hype is well-deserved. They are two brothers and three sisters who all come from the same family in Utah and who all studied simultaneously with Yoheved Kaplinsky at the Juilliard School. They range in age from twenty-three to thirty. When seeing each one of them at their own grand piano, building a unique, tightly tethered sense of unity from a lifetime of natural sibling interrelation, one can only wonder how the group comes to musical cohesion considering that each must have their own valid conviction on musical tenets. These same matters come to bear on the performances featured on today’s CD.

Pianists rarely have the opportunity to play together. I remember that, when I first heard the term “piano quintet”, I just assumed that there would be five pianos. Sorry, classical music public, that’s not how it works. A piano trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet or nonet is virtually always with only one piano.

We should all thank the God in heaven for the sense of fun that took up residence in the amusement park of music that is the brain of Mr. Mozart. It’s a relief that at least one composer finds the temperament of your average classical pianist to be sufficiently down-to-earth so as to share a concert stage with, not only one other, but two other pianists. As with anything penned by Mr. Mozart, the writing and phrasing on these concertos is at once brilliant and graceful. Mr. Schiff, Mr. Barenboim and Mr. Solti are most assuredly having a marvelous time thrashing about in a sea of clever, artful and, yes, even athletic Mozartian pianism.

Credits: To beginning piano teachers the world over, for their dedication to the joy of music in the hands of a youngster. Thank you.