by Daniel Hathaway
This article was originally posted on Cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — You might think that an orchestra that excels in the Austro-German repertoire could prove to be the wrong tool for the special demands of French music. But think again.
On Thursday evening, January 9, at Severance Music Center, guest conductor Stéphane Denève and The Cleveland Orchestra gave elegant, witty, and transparent accounts of works by Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc, worked with soloist Steven Banks in Guillaume Connesson’s wildly virtuosic saxophone concerto honoring John Coltrane, and explored George Gershwin’s ebullient An American in Paris from the point of view of a Frenchman on the podium.
The program, featuring music from “Les Années folles” (the Jazz Age), was divided into two 35-minute halves, beginning with Milhaud’s La création du monde, a ballet score in six sections based on African folk mythology.
At its opening, Milhaud depicts the bubbling up of the earth with a mysterious saxophone solo brilliantly played by Gabriel Piqué. Trombone slides accompany the emergence of birds and insects, leading to wild, jazzy but impeccably played solos that eventually incorporate all 18 members of the chamber ensemble.
Denève guided the unfolding creation story beautifully, keeping its chaos under control but never getting in the way.
Guillaume Connesson’s A Kind of Trane, concerto for saxophone and orchestra (a Cleveland premiere), was conceived “as a tribute to the great jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.”
The composer writes that “Coltrane’s phrasing, his tonal freedom of invention, and his mystical virtuosity have nourished my writing.” Although there are no direct Coltrane quotations, the music does reflect his style. The twenty-minute work requires a disciplined orchestra and a soloist with the chops to pull it off. Both were in ample supply on Thursday.
Steven Banks threw himself headlong into the piece and the results were simply stunning. He brought a rich, beautiful soprano sax sound to the first movement, “There is none other,” full of long, lyrical lines and crisp articulations.
Switching to alto sax for “Ballad,” Banks brought passion to Connesson’s intimate, sometimes sentimental writing.
Returning to soprano sax for “Coltrane on the Dance Floor,” over the steady pulse of a woodblock, Banks released a continuous flow of notes from one end of the instrument to the other. While precisely notated in the score, they sounded improvised.
The concerto is a tour-de-force and once again Denève carefully guided the captivating proceedings from the sidelines.
After the final notes of the performance were played, all you could say to yourself was WOW!
The large audience gave Banks and his colleagues a well-deserved standing ovation and the soloist responded with an encore by Coltrane himself — The Lord’s Prayer.
After intermission, Denève led the Orchestra in a charmingly irreverent performance of Francis Poulenc’s five-movement Suite from Les biches, the ballet score that put the composer on the map.
The peppy Rondeau, the lush-colored Adagietto, the jazzy dancehall Rag-Mazurka, and the elegant Andantino terminated in a finale that can only be described as a fun romp.
What more can you say about George Gershwin’s An American in Paris than that the piece perfectly captures the spirit of the City of Lights in the 1920s? Denève and the Orchestra were completely tuned into its nuances, numerous musical motives, and tempo changes. And wonderfully played solos abounded.
The program will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 12, at Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, 11001 Euclid Ave, Cleveland. Tickets, starting at $39, are available at clevelandorchestra.com.
Daniel Hathaway is founder and editor of the online journal ClevelandClassical.com. He teaches music journalism at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com [DATE]
Click here for a printable copy of this article
