April 6, 2019
Concert pianists who double as legit conductors are more numerous than hens’ teeth, but not especially common. One example is Jeffrey Kahane, who had built a major career as a pianist when, in 1988, the scheduled conductor for a concert fell ill, and the pianist stepped in to save the day. Not long afterward he founded the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and served as its music director for 20 years while continuing his solo career.
After an absence of many years, Mr. Kahane returned to the San Antonio Symphony as guest conductor-pianist in an all-French program, April 5 in the Tobin Center. The first half reflected the influence of American jazz on 20th-century French music, via Darius Milhaud’s pioneering La création du monde and Maurice Ravel’s scintillating Piano Concerto in G. After intermission (and a French cooking demonstration on stage) came works by two other visionaries – the delicate love scene from Hector Berlioz’ Roméo et Juliette and Claude Debussy’s cinematic La mer. Debussy is generally acknowledged as the father of musical modernism and Berlioz is unquestionably its grandfather.
In the Ravel concerto, Mr. Kahane and all the members of the orchestra performed with a great sense of the work’s style – bustling, brilliant, and sometimes madcap in the outer allegros, reverently lyrical in the central adagio. (Stephanie Key’s nasty – in the best sense – little solo on E-flat clarinet in the finale nearly upstaged the whole band, however.) One could not ask for a more affecting account of the adagio, which the pianist delivered with the directness and fervor of a child singing a hymn. His fluid keyboard technique and a supercharged tempo made the finale a breathless romp. If ensemble was a little loose – well, when has France ever been a model of unity?
Milhaud’s La création du monde is one of the 20th century’s most exciting works, mysterious and roiling at its beginning, then deliciously raucous, drawing much inspiration from Harlem jazz clubs. Alas, this was Mr. Kahane’s weakest showing on the podium – there wasn’t enough fire and fervor in the rhythms, not enough sense of direction, not enough tension and release. But the elite crew of 18 players did terrific work as individuals. Top marks go to the alto sax of guest Rami El-Farrah –almost too beautiful in tone and elegant in phrasing.
The Berlioz got a lovely performance – shapely, diaphanous, subtle in its shifting colorations. And isn’t it remarkable that this music, nearly a century older than Ravel’s concerto, sounded just as fresh and groundbreaking?
Mr. Kahane’s account of La mer was more muscular than we’re used to hearing. The stormy finale made a splendid impression, with an excellent sense of line and direction and a beautifully gauged build-up of excitement to the blazing conclusion.
A rapturous ovation was rewarded with an encore – the lively “Farandole” from Georges Bizet’s L’Arlésienne.
By the way, it occurred to me that the symphony audience has become increasingly vehement and vocal in its appreciation over the past few years. There was a time when the San Antonio Symphony audience routinely practiced the walking ovation – quickly rising en masse at the end of the concert, but giving only brief polite applause while heading for the doors. The likely reasons for the change are a conspicuously stronger orchestra, a sequence of increasingly fine music directors, and, with the move to the Tobin Center in 2014, a superb acoustical environment in which the orchestra can pack an emotional wallop. And the audience seems younger, on average, than it was in previous decades. This orchestra has had more than its share of troubles, but now its future looks bright.
Mike Greenberg
Jeffrey KahanePhoto: EF Marton Productions
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