Two-gether: Naughton twins bring Naples a double helping of piano

When Christina and Michelle Naughton arrived onstage at Artis—Naples on Thursday night, it was a double premiere:

• Naples' first visit from the identical twin pianists who have made performance of two-piano repertoire their bounty for music lovers. 
• The first time Artis—Naples audiences will hear Max Bruch's  dramatic Concerto for Two Pianos. Although written in 1912, it only materialized for contemporary audiences in the 1970s.

The pianist sisters to whom Bruch gave sole performance rights tinkered incessantly with it, even dropping a movement, before they shelved it for decades. They had never performed the work as Bruch wrote it.

An estate auction in 1971 put the concerto in the hands of pianist Nathan Twining, who reconstructed the original with Martin Berkovsky.

Whether this performance is a premiere for the Naughton twins isn't clear, but it seems to be a newer challenge in a repertoire that delights in challenges. The pair is working on an album of music by contemporary composer John Adams ("Short Ride in a Fast Machine," "Nixon in China," "Hallelujah Junction"). They also favor Poulenc’s stretchy Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in performance.

Listen:Hear the Naughton twins perform John Adams' "Hallelujah Junction"

But the two also play the four-handed works of Chopin, Mozart and Haydn. And they never seem to tire of the Mendelssohn work that first paired them as teenagers. "We were playing separately before then, but we were asked to play together at a concert, and we said, we'll try that," Michelle recalled.

It obviously worked. The sisters, now 29, have dropped their practice of each playing some solo works in recital to fill their repertoire with two-piano works. They conceded they get stumped by the question of whether being twins gives them some psychic edge in the format.

"We were always twins so that's all we knew," Michelle added.

Critics might fill in those blanks. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution critic:  "Reflective imagery is trite when describing twins, but the women really do mirror each other in performance mannerisms; their technique and voice on the piano feel effortlessly the same. During bubbly passages that flowed from one piano to the other, the sisters sounded like one pianist with four hands."

Both have had the talent to be in demand all over Europe and in China, as well as in the U.S., but some listeners have to be convinced firsthand, they lamented. They occasionally suffer the slings of being seen as a gimmick.

"People say 'Twins? Must be a joke," Michelle said, with Christina adding, "We can't help it that we're twins." 

They are as well, extremely dedicated twins. Ask what they're learning now for future concerts and both say the list is long.  Several years ago the two absorbed Saint-Saëns' "Carnival of the Animals," which will be the feature of the Wang Chamber Music Series Sunday, their second program for Naples. They've mastered two-piano transcriptions of such depth as "The Nutcracker Suite" and Ravel's wildly broad "La Valse."

In Naples, however, they just might take some time to enjoy the city. "Everyone's been wonderful here," Christina said. Added her sister: "The people are as warm as the weather."

Christina and Michelle Naughton

What and when: Masterworks concert with the Naples Philharmonic, Andrey Boreyko conducting,  8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Oct. 18 and 19; Wang Chamber Music Series: 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21

Where: Masterworks in Hayes Hall, Wang Chamber Series in the Daniels Pavilion, both at Artis—Naples, 5833 Pelican Bay Blvd., Naples

Admission: Masterworks, $15 to $72; Wang Chamber Music Series, $48

Tickets: artisnaples.org, 239-597-1900 or at the box office