Last Friday evening, I heard a rather perplexing performance by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. I’ve rarely had such mixed feelings about an MSO concert. What started out in brilliance by the end descended to disappointment.
This was a crowd-pleasing program of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Added to that was the less famous concert opener, Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, which, because of its jazz-inspired flavor, was an appropriate piece to add to this program.
Jeffrey Kahane was both conductor and pianist and led the orchestra from the piano in two of the pieces. The Ravel concerto, with homage to Gershwin and American jazz, was inspired. It was fun to watch Kahane, with his back to the audience, play this flashy masterwork with command and fluency. The composer’s orchestration is exquisite and the MSO played it with savor, sounding like its best self. Margaret Butler showed her absolutely gorgeous, rich sound in a long English horn solo.
Kahane is a better musician than conductor, which became apparent when he took the podium for Appalachian Spring. It wasn’t bad, but lacked precision in ensemble at times. This had to be a conducting issue. Certainly the MSO musicians know what to do—especially in music as familiar as this. But the players by themselves can only take it so far in creating sharp ensemble. The same fuzziness—meaning primarily entrances that were not together—was apparent in the music from West Side Story. There were some fine moments, though, and some excellent orchestral playing.
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It was apparent that fatigue must have been a factor at the end of the concert when Kahane tackled playing and conducting Rhapsody in Blue. I strongly disliked his interpretation, which was a mess of exaggeration, blurred playing and wrong notes. I would just once like to hear a pianist give a straightforward rendition of this famous piece. Playing the original jazz band version (which Gershwin did not orchestrate), Todd Levy stole the stage with his white-hot opening clarinet solo.
