Pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi

MARIN SYMPHONY LAUNCHES SEASON WITH GERSHWIN PROGRAM

The alluring and always enduring music of the American composer George Gershwin thrilled a capacity audience at the Marin Symphony season’s opening concert Oct. 4. While the composer is widely known for many popular tunes in his time, his musical genius is also sharply obvious in his orchestral works and more serious musical forms. Four of these works were heard in the Marin Center, captivating the audience.

The Cuban Overture, composed in 1931, was an inspiration from a brief visit to Havana where Gershwin endeavored to capture the rhythms of the Cuban Rumba. It is a relatively short work where the composer combined the Cuban rhythms with his own thematic material. Conductor Alasdair Neale led this rhythmic symphonic overture with great aplomb, a perfect opening to set the mood for an evening that was to be as distinctive as Gershwin’s unique talents. Special praise should also go to the principal clarinet and oboe performers as well as the outstanding percussion section.

The orchestra’s performance of Catfish Row Suite, an outgrowth of Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess” (his last major work), was also a tour de force reading. Mr. Neale was in full command and control, consummate with section balancing. This suite is a carefully constructed musical précis of the opera score, as Gershwin took five sections from the opera and bridged them skillfully into a beautiful symphonic suite. All the familiar songs from the opera were performed, either by the orchestra or performed as solos. Concertmaster Jeremy Constant’s rendition of Summertime, banjo player Glen Deardorff’s interpretation of I Got Plenty of Nuttin’, and pianist Heather Creighton’s solo parts were piquant and telling..

Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was the composer’s first attempt to write classical music in a popular style. And since the initial performance in 1924, Rhapsody in Blue has remained his most loved and frequently heard work in the literature for piano and orchestra. The pianist in this performance, Keisuke Nakagoshi, made his Marin Symphony debut and nimbly performed the piece with adroit musicality. From the opening clarinet glissando to the beautiful jazz and blues melodies, Mr. Nakagoshi blended into the orchestral fabric and displayed a consummate octave technique. A standing ovation was the reward for a stunning performance.

Completed in 1928, an American in Paris is the only known orchestral work from Gershwin with a detailed program. Inspired by a visit to Europe, Gershwin probably composed this work to describe an American tourist walking along a Parisian boulevard. The Rue de Harp? The Champs de Elyse? Near the Ile de Cite? From the angry noise of Paris taxi horns in the percussion section to the blues-like melody that follows, the orchestra kept the audience’s rapt attention. Under Mr. Neale’s leadership the orchestra captured the essence of post-war Paris in sound, sometimes perplexing and always exciting.

It was an auspicious open to the new season Last night’s opening concert was an inspiring and provocative beginning to the new concert season.