Guest conductor Jeffrey Kahane. Photo credit: Milwaukee Symphony
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra did a European-style entrance on Friday night—entering en masse rather than all being on stage warming up—for the first piece of the program: Darius Milhaud’s La création du monde (The Creation of the World).
Composed in 1922-’23, Milhaud’s ballet music may be the first classical piece to use jazz as its inspiration, though that is impossible to know. He had heard jazz on a visit to Harlem in 1922. There are certainly bluesy jazz sounds and rhythms in the score for 18 players—each a soloist on an instrument. One of the players was the guest conductor, Jeffrey Kahane, who led from the piano. I loved the giddy sounds of the last movement, which softened and then faded into a subdued ending. A quiet finish to a piece usually creates a subdued audience response, and that was the case here.
The jazz influence continued with George Gershwin’s Concerto in F Major, composed in 1925, a year after his Rhapsody in Blue. Kahane was soloist and conductor; quite a challenge, which he admirably fulfilled. It’s impossible to resist Gershwin’s lushness and energy; a foundation of what the entire world thinks of as American music. Kahane’s musicianship and fluency at the keyboard were remarkable. Principal trumpeter Matthew Ernst’s beautiful sound was showcased in a big solo in the second movement.
Apparently, Sergei Rachmaninoff was at the premiere of Rhapsody in Blue in 1924 and later settled in the U.S. The last music he wrote, Symphonic Dances, ended the program. The strengths of the woodwind section were on display in a featured section of the first movement. The smoothly blended sound of the first violins could be heard in a section of the same movement. Kahane drew the very best playing from this excellent orchestra.
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The most complex emotions came from the encore Kahane played after the concerto. A poetic arrangement (by Kahane himself?) of “America the Beautiful” slowly emerged; it felt like a balm in troubled times. Like many people, I don’t know what to feel when patriotic music is played these days. I saw many wiping away tears.
