French pianist at CSO shows affinity for Gershwin
French pianist at CSO shows affinity for Gershwin
By Mary Ellyn Hutton
Cincinnati Post, April 29, 2005
Applause began before the music stopped Thursday night at Music Hall.
It was a confluence of sorts as, with a broad sweep of his arms, Cincinnati Symphony music director Paavo Järvi sent up the crashing final chord of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra to meet audience response mid air. The excellence of the performance and the current generated in the hall bode well for the Telarc recording to be made this weekend, which will pair Bartok's Concerto with that of Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski heard last on last weekend's concerts.
Also on the program - next-to-last for the CSO this season - were Gershwin's Concerto in F with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the CSO premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen's colorful, kinetic Gambit.
Frenchman Thibaudet showed an affinity for Gershwin that, mixed with the clarity and brilliance of his playing and the romantic coloration of the CSO, made for a deeply satisfying performance. The first movement had tonal beauty, jazz inflections, lush melody and a bravura finish. The bluesy Adagio featured CSO principal trumpeter Philip Collins on the "after midnight" theme.
The movement evolved into a real toe-tapper as Thibaudet introduced the perky contrasting material, then built to a big, sweaty climax.
The finale fired off like a machine gun. The rapid, tattoo-like figure got passed from piano to CSO and back until a big tam-tam crash announced a reprise of the climactic theme of the second movement.
The super-soft opening of the Bartok was marred by a remarkable number of coughs and sneezes, a distraction effaced by some of the most intense playing I have ever heard from the CSO violins. Principal percussionist Bill Platt's drumming set the tone for the Scherzando, where pairs of winds and trumpets, like Noah's Ark, marched two-by-two across the page. The Elegia, keystone of Bartok's five-movement arch form, bubbled up mysteriously in the winds to another moment of blazing intensity, with unison first and second violins playing high on their lowest string.
There was schoolyard fun in the fourth movement where Bartok razzes Shostakovich with a prankish quote from Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony.
Järvi danced gleefully on the podium, the winds trilled raucously and there were two extra large glissandi by the trombones. The Presto finale transpired in vivid, streaming color, with lots of verve and bite.
Composer/conductor Salonen (music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) wrote Gambit in 1998 as a 40th birthday gift to fellow Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. Nine-minutes-long with myriad percussion, it unfolds in waves of oscillating figures - the "Shrove-Tide Fair" music in Stravinsky's Petrouchka comes to mind. Temple blocks, wood block and marimba introduce a vivid three-note motif and it builds to an explosive finish.
Repeat is 11 a.m. today, 8 p.m. Saturday at Music Hall.
By Mary Ellyn Hutton
Cincinnati Post, April 29, 2005
Applause began before the music stopped Thursday night at Music Hall.
It was a confluence of sorts as, with a broad sweep of his arms, Cincinnati Symphony music director Paavo Järvi sent up the crashing final chord of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra to meet audience response mid air. The excellence of the performance and the current generated in the hall bode well for the Telarc recording to be made this weekend, which will pair Bartok's Concerto with that of Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski heard last on last weekend's concerts.
Also on the program - next-to-last for the CSO this season - were Gershwin's Concerto in F with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the CSO premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen's colorful, kinetic Gambit.
Frenchman Thibaudet showed an affinity for Gershwin that, mixed with the clarity and brilliance of his playing and the romantic coloration of the CSO, made for a deeply satisfying performance. The first movement had tonal beauty, jazz inflections, lush melody and a bravura finish. The bluesy Adagio featured CSO principal trumpeter Philip Collins on the "after midnight" theme.
The movement evolved into a real toe-tapper as Thibaudet introduced the perky contrasting material, then built to a big, sweaty climax.
The finale fired off like a machine gun. The rapid, tattoo-like figure got passed from piano to CSO and back until a big tam-tam crash announced a reprise of the climactic theme of the second movement.
The super-soft opening of the Bartok was marred by a remarkable number of coughs and sneezes, a distraction effaced by some of the most intense playing I have ever heard from the CSO violins. Principal percussionist Bill Platt's drumming set the tone for the Scherzando, where pairs of winds and trumpets, like Noah's Ark, marched two-by-two across the page. The Elegia, keystone of Bartok's five-movement arch form, bubbled up mysteriously in the winds to another moment of blazing intensity, with unison first and second violins playing high on their lowest string.
There was schoolyard fun in the fourth movement where Bartok razzes Shostakovich with a prankish quote from Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony.
Järvi danced gleefully on the podium, the winds trilled raucously and there were two extra large glissandi by the trombones. The Presto finale transpired in vivid, streaming color, with lots of verve and bite.
Composer/conductor Salonen (music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) wrote Gambit in 1998 as a 40th birthday gift to fellow Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. Nine-minutes-long with myriad percussion, it unfolds in waves of oscillating figures - the "Shrove-Tide Fair" music in Stravinsky's Petrouchka comes to mind. Temple blocks, wood block and marimba introduce a vivid three-note motif and it builds to an explosive finish.
Repeat is 11 a.m. today, 8 p.m. Saturday at Music Hall.
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