{"id":10014,"date":"2021-11-24T23:27:04","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T23:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=10014"},"modified":"2022-02-10T23:30:32","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T23:30:32","slug":"review-naughton-piano-duo-at-tuesday-musical-two-became-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/review-naughton-piano-duo-at-tuesday-musical-two-became-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Naughton Piano Duo at Tuesday Musical: two became one"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Cleveland Classical<\/a><\/p>\n

By Stephanie Manning<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

On the evening of November 16 at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron, the Naughton Piano Duo dazzled in Tuesday Musical\u2019s Margaret Baxtresser Annual Piano Concert. The all-American program, which featured works from the 20th and 21st centuries, contrasted traditional styles with this music\u2019s contemporary evolution.<\/p>\n

Seated at two pianos end to end, and with face masks obscuring their nose and mouth, the duo had only their eyes and head movement to rely on \u2014 yet their synchronicity never faltered. In Leonard Bernstein\u2019s Candide for Four Hands<\/em>, they danced their way through ten musical numbers from the composer\u2019s operetta of the same name. Their phrasing of each energetic melody was enthralling, while the more somber, melancholy moments were exquisitely beautiful and emotive.<\/p>\n

Christina and Michelle Naughton are both accomplished and impressive soloists, but when they play together, it seems needless to talk about what sets them apart. They become one individual, communicating a string of cohesive musical ideas. In Aaron Copland\u2019s Simple Gifts<\/em>, the simple melody is repeated with added complexity every time. In the hands of the duo, this embellishment never obscured the core theme. This piece called for only one instrument, so the sisters sat next to each other at adjoining benches \u2014 mirrored in profile, this only enhanced how they appeared to play as one.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The Naughtons, who premiered this piece back in 2016, are highly familiar with Adams, and their command and mastery over this music was evident. Above dark, rumbling textures, the twins engaged in a compelling musical argument, trading sharp phrases back and forth.<\/p>\n

The duo followed up the Adams with another dense and thorny work: Paul Schoenfield\u2019s Five Days in the Life of a Manic Depressive, for piano four-hands. Stillness fell over the audience during the third movement, \u201cElegy,\u201d where the Naughtons displayed an uncanny ability to keep even the slowest passages laced with an underlying current of tension and anxiety. The virtuosic jazzy flourishes of the last movement, \u201cBoogie,\u201d brought the concert to a resounding close.<\/p>\n

Read the full review.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Cleveland Classical By Stephanie Manning … On the evening of November 16 at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron, the Naughton Piano Duo dazzled in Tuesday Musical\u2019s Margaret Baxtresser Annual Piano Concert. The all-American program, which featured works from the 20th and 21st centuries, contrasted traditional styles with this music\u2019s contemporary evolution. Seated at two … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7128,3610,7127,3612],"class_list":["post-10014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christina-and-michelle-naughton","tag-piano","tag-piano-duo","tag-review"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10015,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10014\/revisions\/10015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/4513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}