E on the Cover on the Cover

on the cover on the cover Sibling Revelry By Patricia Crane e Anyone with a brother or sister can tell you: the sibling relationship is delicate, equal parts Ratray Luke photo: fraught and rewarding. If they’re too far apart, Christian Steine photo: siblings can feel like strangers; too close, and the competition can be fierce. Spend five London National Gallery, photo: minutes in a car with two kids in their “I’m telling Mom!” phase, and you can attest to the high emotions and singular energy that exist between siblings. Richard and John Contiguglia Orli Shaham Gil Shaham But take that unique relationship and mix in some prodigious creative talent, and you have the makings of a dynasty. The modern landscape of Classical music teems with siblings following in the footsteps Bryn Terfel of Fanny and Felix Mendelsohn and the Meat Loaf at the Met? Strauss brothers. Today’s sibling collaborations Terfel turns 50! run the gamut—from exclusive partnerships to pursuing individual careers and collaborat- By Bob Chapman photo: DG Adam Barker DG Adam photo: ing on special projects. Bryn Terfel continues to seek new artistic Together literally all their lives, identical twins challenges. One of the few non-tenor male Richard and John Contiguglia are the most opera singers to have achieved worldwide fame, the Welsh bass-baritone took on the Bryn Terfel famous duo-pianists playing today. Making Mari and Hakon Samuelsen their world debut in 1962, they’ve spent their role of Tevye, Russian-Jewish peasant farmer, joint career bringing oft-forgotten duo-piano in Fiddler on the Roof in the U.K. last sum- houses, including New York’s Metropolitan, pieces back into the limelight. And since mer, following a triumphant run of Sweeney Milan’s La Scala, London’s Covent Garden, 1999, twin sisters Emily and Julia Bruskin Todds in New York and London. and the Vienna State Opera. When he sang (violin and cello) have collaborated with pia- Born Bryn Terfel Jones on November 9, Mozart’s Figaro at the Met in 1994, The nist and fellow Juilliard alumna Andrea Lam 1965, in Pant Glas, Caernarfonshire, Wales, New York Times ran a front-page story as the award-winning Claremont Trio. Matarazzo Todd photo: he dropped the Jones surname at the begin- about him. Speaking of string-playing siblings, tune in ning of his professional career so as not to be Terfel’s rich, warm, vibrant voice is capable on September 14 at 8 p.m. as Monday Night confused with a baritone named Bryn Jones. of expressive pianissimos as well as roaring at the Symphony features Norwegian sister/ At first, says Terfel, he was more drawn to fortissimos. Along with major roles in operas brother duo Mari and Hakon Samuelsen, popular music than to Classical, and as a by Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini, his reper- playing the late James Horner’s Pas de Deux, young student at the Guildhall School of tory includes Nick Shadow (Stravinsky’s The Music in London, he often went to Pink Rake’s Progress), Offenbach’s four villains (Les Double Concerto for Violin and Cello. The Ying Quartet The piece premiered in 2014 for the Royal Floyd concerts. American fans sometimes Contes d’Hoffmann), and Wagner’s Wotan Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s 175th compare him to Meat Loaf, whom he physi- and Hans Sachs. cally resembles. anniversary; it’s one of Horner’s final com- they’ve recorded several acclaimed albums Equally acclaimed as a song recitalist, par- pleted works. together. His introduction to opera was a Covent ticularly with Schubert and Mahler lieder, Garden production of Verdi’s Otello with Terfel continues to champion British com- Don’t miss the Ying Quartet (boasting three Is it coincidence? Genetics? Their parents’ Plácido Domingo as the tragic Moor. In posers such as Delius, Vaughan Williams, of the founding Ying siblings) with pianist attitudes, or just good old-fashioned sibling 1989, Terfel won the Lieder Prize in the Finzi, and Butterworth. No Classical snob, Adam Neiman, playing Anton Arensky’s rivalry? Whatever the cause might be, when BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competi- Terfel seems just as happy belting out Welsh Piano Quintet in D at 7:30 p.m. on musical greatness runs in families, we are the tion, and he made his professional operatic ballads (with his compatriot Tom Jones) and September 14. beneficiaries—and we can only hope that debut the following year as Guglielmo in Broadway showstoppers. And be sure to listen for solo pieces and col- their artistry inspires a sister somewhere to Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte with the Welsh laborations by pianist Orli Shaham and her stop poking her brother, and likewise get On November 9, during the first hour of National Opera. brother, violinist Gil. These award-winning her brother to stop stealing her favorite bear. Music in the Night, Bryn Terfel will sing Ralph siblings have their own stellar careers, but Otherwise, I’m telling Mom. q For the past quarter century, Terfel has sung Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel, accompa- leading roles at the world’s greatest opera nied by pianist Malcolm Martineau. q 28 29.

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