Concerto Premier Makes Unique Ravinia Evening

A piano concerto is a staple of classical music, but one written for five pianos commissioned specifically by the for Tuesday’s performance of the is a rare event. 

The Five Browns are unique enough. The five siblings—Ryan, Melody, Gregory, Deondra and Desirae—between 25 and 32,  are making a concerted effort together to introduce classical music to a younger generation. 

Adding to the unusual evening was the presence of composer Nico Muhly. Classical composers are few and far between today, but like the Five Browns, the 29-year-old wants to put his touch on the efforts of past masters. 

The evening began with two pieces—Selections from the Planets by Gustav Holst and Camille Saint-Saens Danse Macabre—played exclusively by the Five Browns. The night ended with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s rendition of Dimitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony led by . 

While the Shostakovich symphony evoked themes of love and the Russian composer’s underlying but , it was the concerto titled “The Edge of the World” by Muhly written for the Five Browns that made the night most unusual. 

“When the Five Browns chose me a year ago to do a concerto for five pianos it made me very happy as a composer,” Muhly said before the performance. “I’m honored and proud to have it performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.” 

Muhly described his work as a geographic tour of the world through different spaces and eras. He took the audience from present day Iceland on a journey through America’s old west and into medieval Spain when people still thought the world was flat. 

“It starts in Northern Iceland and then goes to the far western United States during the Old West,” Muhly said. “Then we look at the maps showing the world flat. We end with the night sky, the edge of the world.” 

Unlike the Shostakovich symphony Conlon and the orchestra members knew intimately from numerous past encounters, more familiarity may have helped the debut of “The Edge of the World.” 

Though Conlon often eschews written music while using both hands and his entire body to lead the orchestra through its paces, both the conductor and the ensemble seemed more mechanical throughout the effort. Conlon appeared to consciously count rather than project his usually flowing style. 

“There was no emotion in it at all,” David Yelin of Wilmette said. “It was not melodic. It was very modern but it was a thrill for him (Muhly)."

Sally Barr of Wilmette had a different opinion.  “It was well done,” she said. “The five pianos were interesting. I’ve never heard that before.” 

Yelin’s wife, Andrea Yelin, took a different view of Danse Macabre. The piece was described by Melody Brown as a dance of “ghosts, goblins and skeletons” in a nearby graveyard while the local farmer slept. 

“It came eerily alive for me,” Andrea Yelin said. “I could feel the wind swirling. You could see they (the creatures of the night) were playful.” 

Before the CSO’s performance of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, Conlon took a few minutes to explain the themes to the audience. He told how the piece was the composer’s effort to redeem himself in the eyes of the Soviet authorities as well as other messages. 

“He wrote for the next decade in code,” Conlon said of the artist’s effort to mask his true feelings. “You have to read between the lines.” Conlon also explained parts of the work that were expressing Shostakovich’s feelings for a lost love who left him for a man named Karmen. 

“You decide,” he told the audience before he began. That is what they did.

Barr was thrilled with the commanding work and was pleased with Conlon’s explanation. 

“It was very powerful, not as unknown as some of his work,” Barr said. “I liked the Carmen themes. I wouldn’t have noticed them if he (Conlon) hadn’t mentioned it."