Naples Philharmonic gives the B team an 'A' performance

Naples Philharmonic Music Director Andrey Boreyko fortified the opening Masterworks concert at Artis—Naples on Thursday with some Vitamin B: Brahms, Bruch and Bates. 

By incorporating the dual piano virtuosity of Christina and Michelle Naughton, this program became a bedrock standard for a classical music season. (The Nov. 15 and 17 concerts could challenge that: Mozart's double violin concerto and Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony are the program.)

Max Bruch's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra was the revelation of the evening; he wrote two double concertos, but this one has been missing in action nearly 60 years. The Naughtons had the yeoman's task this weekend of pulling it onto the radar for the 99 percent of us who know only his famous violin concerto. . 

They can check off the "completed" box. Both play with power and expression, and they have an intimate understanding of both Bruch's trajectory and of each other's performance.

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There was a sense of a four-handed single mind behind their music. But it was fun to watch the two break into smiles at individual times, when a turn of Bruch's musical phrasing or a favorite moment inspired them. Their performance, including a dazzling encore of a four-handed version of Ernesto Lecuona "Malagueña," probably sold any remaining tickets to the Sunday chamber concert. The lucky audience for that can see them at close range in the Daniels Pavilion, performing Sain-Saëns' "Carnival of the Animals."

The two are identical twins, which even trumps Katia and Marielle Labeque, sister stars of the two-piano concerto, for telepathic potential. And the Naughtons are intense. Their opening chords were so robust that Boreyko signaled for them to modulate a bit. Unfortunately, that left some of us on the left side of the hall straining to hear them in part of the first movement. There may be some dynamics to be worked out here between the soloists and orchestra before the Friday night performance.

The dramatic and evocative tone of the concerto matches its strange history. The story goes that Bruch was charmed by two sisters who had performed one of his fantasy pieces for two pianos and wrote the concerto with them in mind. He even signed over sole performance rights.

His dubiously grateful recipients proceeded to tinker with the piece, even scrapping one of its movements, and performed it twice before they permanently shelved it. The world can enjoy it now only because pianist Matthew Twining found the piano score in an auction of their estate in 1971, and tracked down buyers who had the other instrumental parts. 

There will be no such sorry fate with Mason Bates' vigorous 2007 "Attack Decay Sustain Release." It's on YouTube. 

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The brass and woodwinds are major players in this constantly moving piece, in which  Bates is specific enough to send  the piccolo on alternate swoops of vibrato-free music and growled calls. It was a jolt of fresh music and a wonderful way to start the concert; we hope we hear it again; better yet, we hope Collier County students can hear it before they dis classical music. 

With Boreyko behind the baton, The Naples Philharmonic is the near-perfect orchestra for the Brahms Four. He obviously loves Brahms. His conducting was specific and nuanced for a work that needs it. There wasn't a relaxed moment for the orchestra, although the horns had some of its most memorable roles.

This was the composer's final symphony, a blend of pensive and melodic that some analysts say signaled conflicting emotions in the 52-year-old composer about his dwindling days. 

"For this whole movement I had the feeling that I was being given a beating by two incredibly intelligent people," wrote one critic of its first segment. Yet, the same critic came away admiring it. It is the most respected of his symphonies, one that mirrors the mind in a way we 21st century people can easily relate to.

Even the guest artists probably listened to this one with wide ears: Brahms shopped the work to critics in a two-piano format. 

Masterworks concert

What and when: Masterworks concert with the Naples Philharmonic, Andrey Boreyko conducting,  8 p.m.  Friday, Oct. 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