“Three Pianos” is a reenactment of a Schubertiade, or a session where Schubert would gather with his friends to enjoy his music. This is sort of similar in concept to expressing Mark Twain with music, except now, “Three Pianos” is expressing Schubert’s music through theater. This theater production is a collaboration between three men who had a long interest in Schubert, and an artistic director who is ignorant about classical music to balance it out. The three guys, Dave Malloy, Alec Duffy, and Rick Burkhardt met at the Judson Memorial Church in 2009, after a concert turned free for all. Malloy found an old score of “Winterreise” in a choir loft, and they soon started to sing some of the 24 songs of the song cycle, while drinking beer. All of the men were involved in the music and theater world, and when Duffy’s troupe was offered a spot in the Ontological-Hysteric theater (St. Mark’s Church), he asked the others if they were interested in doing “some sort of…something” with their interests in Schubert. Soon, they were gathering in living rooms rehearsing the “Winterreise”. It was not long before they realized that what they were doing were much like a Schubertiade. They realized afterward that they would need some sort of structure to the play, and that was where they decided to work with Rachel Chavkin, who was the artistic director of the troupe the TEAM.
In the “Three Pianos”, using the idea of a Schubertiade as an outline, the three guys play through all of Winterreise (all 24 songs), sometimes as themselves, and sometimes as Schubert and his friends. They do not follow the score note by note, and they don’t always play the entire song. In between the spaces where the men are not playing a song, they would be drinking red wine, and talking about Schubert and his songs. I feel like this theater production is very interesting in concept, because it is bringing the old atmosphere where people use to stand around the piano to enjoy music together, and then adding modern personalities to it. It is going to open at the New York Theatre Workshop on Sunday, December 19.
You can see a video of their kickstarter performance (from when they were still trying to raise money for the project). Here is the New York Times article.
This is getting lots of press, but (based on the video) I find it a rather sophomoric take on a giant masterpiece. Schubert’s piece is sufficiently eerie and effective with just a voice and piano (and a translation so you can follow the German text). Here is a video that seeks to capture some of the mystery and emotion of the original, without distorting it in the manner of “Three Pianos.” I MUCH prefer Schubert.
There could be some who prefer the Garage Band qualities of Three Pianos, but I prefer the original: