The 5 Browns: A delightful piano experience

When my wife — a classical pianist — stumbled across a CD by a group called the 5 Browns, she was impressed by the concept of five siblings playing ten-handed arrangements. The CD contained short arrangements and medleys using pieces like Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Stravinsky’s The Firebird, Copland’s Simple Gifts and Dvořák’s Symphony #9 in E Minor, “From the New World.” Worth a shot, eh?

It was definitely worth a shot, and the album, “No Boundaries,” which came out in April 2006, is a real treat. The young people are tremendous musicians. If you like piano music, and particularly, piano arrangements of classical symphonic works, you’ll enjoy this. (The CD has a DVD flip side with music videos of the Browns playing. Unfortunately, the arrangements on the music video are very abridged, but it’s still nice to watch them at work.)

While discussing these particular works, I’ll mention some preferred versions.

• For “Rhapsody in Blue,” my hands-down favorite is a piano solo version from “Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls,” which came out in 1993. After hearing this “unplugged” rendition, all the symphonic versions seem pale by comparison.

• For the full “From the New World,” only a small bit of which was used in “No Boundaries,” I recommend Eugene Ormandy’s recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.