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Philadelphia Orchestra's Mann roundup
Tom Purdom
I'm not Yo Yo Ma, or:
The also-rans also rise
TOM PURDOM
Rossen Milanov opened the Philadelphia Orchestra’s summer series with a crowd-drawing super-star— Yo Yo Ma— but the other soloists on the schedule bore less familiar names. I managed to sample four of them: violinist Jennifer Koh and pianists Leon McCawley, Kirill Gerstein, and Jon Kimura Parker.
McCawley drew the hardest assignment. The Mann’s big space isn’t the best place for Mozart, but McCawley opened Mozart’s 22nd Piano Concert with a touch so light and cheery that it created an immediate illusion of intimacy. He produced an overall performance characterized by singing melodies and a constant reminder that the piano is a string instrument, just like the harp and the lute.
Like a jam session
The Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein scored a hit with Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, a set of 27 variations in which piano and orchestra work with the full range of their potential for variety and sheer musical pleasure. Gerstein kept his eyes fastened on the keyboard from beginning to end, and conductor Thomas Wilkins didn’t look at the soloist until the final moment, but the whole piece danced like a jam session improvised by two guys in perfect sync.
Parker enjoys the most affable stage personality, as you can tell by a glance at his website. His most obvious musical virtue is his tremendous control-- a quality many big men seem to possess. He can pound the keyboard when the score calls for it, as you’d expect. But he can also make the piano strum like a guitar. Parker’s delicate passages in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto evoked a fairy tale atmosphere that made the opening item on the July 22 Tchaikovsky program— a suite from The Sleeping Beauty— seem heavy-handed.
Koh’s demanding repertoire
Jennifer Koh is becoming a familiar figure to Philadelphia new music audiences. Her recent appearances include a new music recital on the Kimmel Presents series, a demanding Ligeti scheduled by Orchestra 2001 last season, and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s The Singing Rooms. This was the first time I’ve heard her play one of the standard violin concertos, and Koh proved she can fulfill the assignment with dash and understanding. She introduced the Sibelius violin concerto with a sweet, haunting opening and maintained that high level of quality through a dark, throaty slow movement and a high-spirited, driving finish.
The Orchestra’s traditional all-Tchaikovsky summer program (July 22) ended, as it always does, with the 1812 Overture, complete with cannon bangs during and fireworks after. Some people enjoy that kind of thing. Some people enjoy feeling superior to the people who enjoy that kind of thing. And some of us enjoy feeling superior to the people who enjoy feeling superior to the people who enjoy that kind of thing. What is life without its pleasures?
The also-rans also rise
TOM PURDOM
Rossen Milanov opened the Philadelphia Orchestra’s summer series with a crowd-drawing super-star— Yo Yo Ma— but the other soloists on the schedule bore less familiar names. I managed to sample four of them: violinist Jennifer Koh and pianists Leon McCawley, Kirill Gerstein, and Jon Kimura Parker.
McCawley drew the hardest assignment. The Mann’s big space isn’t the best place for Mozart, but McCawley opened Mozart’s 22nd Piano Concert with a touch so light and cheery that it created an immediate illusion of intimacy. He produced an overall performance characterized by singing melodies and a constant reminder that the piano is a string instrument, just like the harp and the lute.
Like a jam session
The Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein scored a hit with Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, a set of 27 variations in which piano and orchestra work with the full range of their potential for variety and sheer musical pleasure. Gerstein kept his eyes fastened on the keyboard from beginning to end, and conductor Thomas Wilkins didn’t look at the soloist until the final moment, but the whole piece danced like a jam session improvised by two guys in perfect sync.
Parker enjoys the most affable stage personality, as you can tell by a glance at his website. His most obvious musical virtue is his tremendous control-- a quality many big men seem to possess. He can pound the keyboard when the score calls for it, as you’d expect. But he can also make the piano strum like a guitar. Parker’s delicate passages in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto evoked a fairy tale atmosphere that made the opening item on the July 22 Tchaikovsky program— a suite from The Sleeping Beauty— seem heavy-handed.
Koh’s demanding repertoire
Jennifer Koh is becoming a familiar figure to Philadelphia new music audiences. Her recent appearances include a new music recital on the Kimmel Presents series, a demanding Ligeti scheduled by Orchestra 2001 last season, and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s The Singing Rooms. This was the first time I’ve heard her play one of the standard violin concertos, and Koh proved she can fulfill the assignment with dash and understanding. She introduced the Sibelius violin concerto with a sweet, haunting opening and maintained that high level of quality through a dark, throaty slow movement and a high-spirited, driving finish.
The Orchestra’s traditional all-Tchaikovsky summer program (July 22) ended, as it always does, with the 1812 Overture, complete with cannon bangs during and fireworks after. Some people enjoy that kind of thing. Some people enjoy feeling superior to the people who enjoy that kind of thing. And some of us enjoy feeling superior to the people who enjoy feeling superior to the people who enjoy that kind of thing. What is life without its pleasures?
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