Rhapsody in Blue. Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 9 Aug 2013
Gershin is nothing more than a talented tunesmith.
Do I have your attention? Then let me explain.
“There’s a crisis and here’s the solution!” As we move more into the federal election campaign we are going to be confronted with such bleating’s, and if it is said often enough we may soon start believing that a crisis exists when in fact there may not be one.
What’s this got to do with Gershwin and the ASO?
Well, why would you schedule an all Gershwin program as a Masters Series concert? (Is this a first?) If it’s promoted enough then maybe we will start associating Gershwin with the likes of the Ravel and Mozart and Beethoven and Prokofiev and Mahler, at least subliminally.
Well, I’m not convinced.
In my view, when his music is compared to the recognised masters, Gershwin is a tunesmith, an extremely talented and successful one, but a tunesmith none the less. This is potentially an inflammatory thing to say but it is also a view held by others who are vastly more knowledgeable than me. For example, the inimitable Leonard Bernstein once described the Rhapsody in Blue, which he loved by the way, as “…not a composition at all. It’s a string of separate paragraphs stuck together… You can cut parts of it without affecting the whole.” But he also thought that Gershwin rated as highly as Tchaikovsky as a melodist. High praise indeed, and how could you disagree?
Listening to Gerswhin is an altogether different experience. One is forced to switch off that part of your musical brain that tries to ‘make sense’ of it in a traditional way, because Gershwin doesn’t follow the rules. His music is episodic, as Bernstein intimates, and it is a series of moments which are not necessarily connected. But what moments they are!
And so to the ASO’s concert.
The Cuban Overture is a luscious exploration of exotic dance rhythms held together within a percussive framework, and guest conductor Marc Taddei positioned four of the percussionists close to him in a tight semicircle around his podium. This gave an unusual visual focus to the performance and sharpened our aural attention as a result.
The Concerto in F has a traditional quick-slow-quick three movement structure but that is the extent to which it conforms with tradition. At the conclusion of the first movement the capacity audience – yes, capacity, and we are talking about the Festival Theatre – broke into spontaneous applause, an that is definitely not traditional either! Their appreciation of the talent of pianist and Gershwin expert Kevin Cole was heartfelt. The second movement, which is more melodic and song like, is almost a set of intimate conversations between the piano and various other instruments, with crystal clear phrasing from Coles. Matt Dempsey was superlative on trumpet.
An American in Paris is all about the non-string instruments. It’s bold and brassy and a rare opportunity for the extended family of saxophones (Damien Hurn, Mike Stewart and Andre Ryoch) – including the imposing baritone saxophone – to grace the stage with the orchestra. The orchestration also includes four tuned (sort of) taxi horns. Where does the ASO acquire such things, and do they keep them?
But all of this was just a warm-up for the main event, which of course was the Rhapsody in Blue. You could see the audience shift their attention to principal clarinet Dean Newcombe as he beamed a smile and flawlessly played the very, very famous and technically difficult trill and ‘smeared’ glissando opening. The ASO is very fortunate to have this young man in its midst. He is a talent. Curiously the clarinet opening is not exactly how Gershwin wrote it. Yes, he wrote the notes, but during a rehearsal prior to its first public performance, the clarinettist was ‘mucking around’ and produced the particular effect that we now associate with the composition. Gershwin heard it and insisted that it become the performance norm. On piano, Coles was again captivating and his pedal and hand crossover technique added great clarity to the performance. Apart from the pure listening pleasure, Coles is also an enjoyable musician to watch. He sits strongly at the keyboard but also with delicate poise. He clearly has a deep understanding of the music and was able to give it a jazz feel without, of course, improvising a single note!
At its conclusion the audience were emphatic in their appreciation and clearly enjoyed themselves as much as the orchestra who looked liberated by the infrequent opportunity to play music that doesn’t have the same intensity as the compositions of… well… the masters!
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
