Happily, the duo pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton brought an altogether sunnier mood to the double piano concerto, K.365, in E-flat, of Mozart. This is a relatively early work, dating to circa 1780, scored for a rather small ensemble of strings, with pairs of oboes, bassoon, and horns. The ensemble of the two keyboard players was simply superb, and the music benefited from their lovely cantabile and expressive articulation.
Read MoreLast night at the Performing Arts Center, pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton opened with Mendelssohn’s “Andante and Allegro Brilliante in A Major, Op. 92” for four hands. Although two players and four hands were playing on one piano, the piece sounded as one; the only pauses in this piece were the ones that Mendelssohn intended.
Read MoreHomburg. US twins Christina and Michelle Naughton, educated and crowned with prizes at the prestigious Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, are recent double stars in the universe of piano duos. On Thursday, they found their way to the Homburg Master Concerts. The introductory Opus 92 of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy immediately made you listen: the way they divided the melodic lines seamlessly, and the intelligent and finely nuanced way they presented the exuberant Allegro, promised everything that later followed. We were also stunned by the serene and mature interpretation of Schubert’s “Lebensstürmen” D 947 by the two pianists, who played the entire program by heart.
Read MoreLoh took a backseat to his young guest soloists, New York’s Christine and Michelle Naughton, on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s tightly constructed Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365. The 23-year-old twin sisters, born eight minutes apart, and dual pianists are recent Curtis Institute of Music graduates at the first blush of their professional careers.
Read MoreEven in light of the relatively late replacement of violinist Sarah Chang (in what was termed a “program dispute”), it felt a tad incongruous to inaugurate the new season of the Schubert Club’s august International Artist Series, which has played host to so many of music’s greats, with the Naughton twins, Christina and Michelle: a young piano duo, Wisconsin-born and -bred, that few listeners had heard of.
Read MoreI’m sure that a psychologist or geneticist could do a much better job than I explaining the unique means of communication shared by twins, but there was evidence aplenty of it at St. Paul’s Ordway Center on Tuesday night.
Read MorePianists don’t have to be twins to give stellar performances of music written for two pianos, but it apparently doesn’t hurt. Twin sisters Christina and Michelle Naughton, internationally known natives of Madison, joined the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Christopher Seaman on Friday morning for a seamless performance of the Mozart Concerto in E-flat major for two pianos and orchestra.
Read MoreLast Saturday, the two sisters played Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Two Pianos with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and surrounded the listener with beautiful piano music. They played like two people singing to each other, creating a duet entrancing in a way that no single piano performance could achieve.
Read MoreThe second half featured a double portion of guest artists, the homecoming of twin pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton. There are far fewer works for two pianos and orchestra than for two solo pianos, but Sewell and the ladies chose a semi-neglected rarity, Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Two Pianos in E major. Written when he was 14, and performed with his own sister, the Naughtons also made it seem a family affair.
Read MoreThe second half of the program offered not one but two guest soloists, and a pair of twins at that. These are Christina and Michelle Naughton, raised in Madison , and barely out of their teens. Their talents guarantee them brilliant careers, both as individual players and as two-piano partners. Their vehicle was a welcome rarity, the Concerto in E major for Two Pianos and Orchestra by the teenage Felix Mendelssohn. It is the first of two such works that Mendelssohn composed in 1823-24. Its orchestral writing is generally perfunctory, not yet quite revealing his characteristic style. But the piano writing already suggests what he would later achieve in his two mature piano concertos.
Read MoreSister pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton brought the audience to its collective cheering feet as they mastered twin grand pianos to play Mendelssohn’s “Concerto for Two Pianos in E Major.” It wasn’t just their artistry, which was spectacular, but the sisters – former Madison residents who attended Edgewood High School and currently study at the Curtis School of Music in Philadelphia –stage presence was daunting.
Read MoreChristina und Michelle Naughton sind ein hervomagendes Klavierduo. Wie musikalisch dicht beieinander sie agieren, ist große Klasse. In der zweiten ProgrammhäIfte bei ,,Klassik vor Acht” im Herkulessaal, in der die Zwillingsschwestern nicht mehr vierhändig an einem Klavier, sondern an zwei Instrumenten spielen, Iieß sich ihr beredter Augenkontakt beobachten. Er ist Zeicheneines perfekten Zusammenspiels.
Read MoreAnd Friday’s program offered just a taste of the Naughtons. They will be back at the Fine Arts Center Sunday night with two great works from the repertoire — the second suite of Rachmaninoff and Lutoslawski’s “Paganini Variations,” which is a real showstopper.
Read MoreChristina and Michelle Naughton are identical twins. Standing side by side on stage during a duo-piano recital last Saturday, their resemblance was uncanny–except for Christina’s slightly longer hair and ever-so-slightly higher heels. The sisters, who are piano students at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, were in town to perform on the Steinway Society of the Bay Area’s Piano Series, held at Le Petite Trianon in San Jose. An identical-twin duo-piano team sounds suspiciously like a gimmick assuring fast fame for the mediocre, but the Naughton sisters proved that they are worthy of every ounce of success which comes their way. Their recital displayed stellar musicianship, technical mastery, and awe-inspiring artistry.
Read MoreViolinist Yehudi Menuhin was always best with his pianist sister, Hephzibah; they claimed to read each other’s musical minds. But Christina and Michelle Naughton, who made their Philadelphia Orchestra debut Tuesday at the Mann Center, aren’t just sisters, but identical twins, whose musical compatibility is even more keen than their physical resemblance.
Read MoreThe season closer of the UAB Piano Series on Sunday began routinely enough. Organizer Yakov Kasman customarily books fine pianists — many of them young — and Michelle Naughton was no exception.
Read More