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The 5 Browns - No Boundries
- It's always important to reimagine a genre every once in awhile, and classical music has been in need of a slight reimagining for a long time. As a classically trained musician who was raised listening to the "oldies" , "classic rock", and good ol' "pop" stations, I see the need more than most in my industry for the classical world to branch out, push its' boundaries and establish a broader constituency.
Enter artists and groups like Andrea Bocelli, Bowfire, and now, The 5 Browns . On their second CD in as many years, this familial quintet delivers No Boundaries, a collection of show pieces and standards assembled to showcase the versatility of these five siblings, and nowhere is their dynamic, orchestral, and musical capability more evident than on the bookends of this disc.
Choosing from a range of stylistically and geographically different composers, the disc begins with George Gershwin's arguably most played and recognizable piano piece (which is really architecturally a concerto), Rhapsody in Blue. With the 5 siblings taking on the roles of soloist and orchestra, the sheer volume of complexity of sound is surprisingly simple to understand.
It's that same complexity that favors Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Suite arrangement that closes the disc. Stravinsky, an already complex composer in his manipulation of tonality and timbre, is benefited immeasurably here by the delicate interpretation of his orchestral score into a 5 piano, ten hand arrangement that's at once percussive as it is melodic. If Stravinsky were around, it's possible he would even transcribe his Petrouchka or Rite of Spring for this quintet as their next project (which I would imagine their producer is already working on after the success of Firebird).
As for the selections in between, some of the choices are extraneous, as the disc doesn't need to be this fat and structurally takes away from the potency of meatier tracks like Gregory and Ryan's Malaguena, and Deondra, Desirae, and Melody's Valse and Romance by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
This is ultimately a welcome addition to the classical section at your local record store. It is being marketed in a slightly gimmicky manner, more toward the non-classical CD buying demographic in hopes up reaching a market of untapped consumers, which I understandably advocate. I can only hope that after buying this CD, someone who would have never ventured into this section of the store would check out some of the composers on this disc, as these kids do a great job of representing a lot of what is powerful about this genre, and although five siblings playing the same instrument is a great gimmick, it's one that can stand on its own without the hype and spin.
Reviewer: David Fallo
new
Reviewer's Rating: 8
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 10-Mar-2006
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