South Florida Classical Review

Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet was the soloist in music of Bernstein and Gershwin with the New World Symphony Saturday night.

The legacy of conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and philanthropist Lin Arison was the focus of the New World Symphony’s final program of the season Saturday night, as the orchestral academy paid tribute to two of its pivotal co-founders. 

Although the program of works by Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin at New World Center was planned more than a year in advance, it proved wholly appropriate for the occasion. Bernstein was a mentor and close friend of Tilson Thomas, who died April 22. The music of Gershwin was one of Tilson Thomas’ specialties and passions.

Artistic director Stéphane Denève introduced a video from the 1980 Kennedy Center Honors telecast of Tilson Thomas conducting Bernstein’s Overture to Candide. (Bernstein was one of that year’s honorees.) In typical fashion, Tilson Thomas’ brisk rendition captured the comedic opera brio of the score. Denève then asked the audience to stand for a moment of silence in Tilson Thomas’ honor. That tribute was followed by Nicholas Hersh’s orchestral arrangement of “Make Our Garden Grow,” the finale of Candide, Bernstein’s finest theatrical work next to West Side Story. Like Bernstein, through his mentoring and encouragement of gifted young musicians, Tilson Thomas made many artists’ gardens grow.

Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 for piano and orchestra (“The Age of Anxiety”) is one of his best works concert works, not written for the theater. (While it has been adapted by many choreographers, including Jerome Robbins, the symphony is best heard as pure music.)

The prominent piano part requires blazing technique and virtuosity and Jean-Yves Thibaudet provided exactly that. (French president Emmanuel Macron recently awarded Thibaudet the Legion of Honor, France’s highest honor for cultural, civic and military achievements.)

Denève subtly evoked the bluesy opening of Bernstein’s symphony. At the piano’s first entrance, Thibaudet evidenced a breezy, light touch with a wide color spectrum. The string sonority was rich and enveloping and the brass impactful, matching Thibaudet’s spirited articulation of the fast segments. He delivered fleet pianistic power one moment and supple, sensitively contoured shadings the next. Denève was in full command of Bernstein’s variations of meter and pace.

“The Dirge,” which opens the symphony’s second part, is one of Bernstein’s first flirtations with atonality. Thibaudet and Denève brought decisiveness to this section with the conductor drawing tremendous decibels in the climaxes. “Masques” is quintessential Bernstein and Thibaudet demonstrated his versatility, playing with the idiomatic flair and ease of a veteran jazz pianist. Denève made every strand of the accompaniment for two harps, celesta, percussion and bass totally audible and transparent. The Epilogue was given broad definition, the keyboard line eloquently phrased. A standing ovation greeted this masterful realization of a fascinating score.

In a pivot from the announced program, Denève dedicated a performance of Debussy’s La cathédrale engloutie (“The Engulfed Cathedral”) to the memory of Lin Arison who passed away last October. Along with her husband Ted Arison (founder of Carnival Cruise Lines), Arison co-founded the orchestral academy with Tilson Thomas.  Denève adapted Leopold Stokowski’s orchestration of this Debussy piano Prelude into a version for piano and orchestra. Thibaudet drew multiple hues from the instrument, bathing Debussy’s impressionistic shades in Technicolor.

To open the concert’s second half, conducting fellow Ziwei Ma took the podium for Gershwin’s Variations on “I Got Rhythm” in William C. Schoenfield’s arrangement. Ma’s snappy direction and Thibaudet’s verve and ease brought Gershwin’s final completed classical work to vivid life.

The scheduled program concluded with a performance of An American in Paris that perfectly captured the iconic piece’s mix of French elan and American exuberance. With the orchestra in top form. Denève’s reading was alternately boisterous, gentle and lyrical. The solo trumpet in the blues section emerged strong but finely controlled and there were excellent spotlight solos from violin, trombone and tuba players. An entertaining video collage of scenes from the French capital and movies from the period accompanied the music-making.

As an encore, Denève led the Overture to Girl Crazy, Gershwin’s 1930 musical which made stars of Ethel Merman and Ginger Rogers and contained several classic Gershwin songs. The conductor’s idiomatic affinity for this brand of Americana was fully evident. “Embraceable You” flowed with natural lilt and the leisurely sway of “But Not for Me” seemed exactly right. 

After acknowledging the players multiple times, the conductor waved goodbye to the audience. The evening proved a fitting tribute to Michael Tilson Thomas, a seminal artist whose legacy through the New World fellows, past and present, will be felt for decades to come.

The New World Symphony repeats the program 2 p.m. Sunday at the New World Center in Miami Beach. nws.edu

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