RIDGEFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
April 1, 2006 — Review by Courtenay Caublé
With Maestro Sidney Rothstein back on the podium and in full command, the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra’s final subscription concert this season at Ridgefield’s Anne Richardson Auditorium featured Russian pianist Elena Baksht in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G and included two works by Modest Mussorgsky – his own original version of A Night on Bald Mountain and Ravel’s brilliant orchestration of the composer’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The program this time was partially sponsored by Ridgefield Bank, with the soloist underwritten by David and Carolyn Foster.
A special treat for the opening Night on Bald Mountain performance was the inclusion in the orchestra of junior and senior members of the RSO’s Youth Symphony, who, with professional aplomb, contributed to a solid reading of Mussorgsky’s seldom (if ever) heard original version and orchestration of a work that is now an audience favorite in Rimsky-Korsakov’s largely rewritten and reorchestrated version. Maestro Rothstein commented that his reason for including Mussorgsky’s own orchestration was to provide a listening comparison later in the program to the masterful orchestrational skill.
When the already famous and wealthy American composer George Gershwin approached Maurice Ravel in the hope of having lessons in composition from the celebrated French composer and told Ravel (at his request) how much money he was making, Ravel is reported to have quipped “Maybe I should be taking lessons from you!”
The opening movement of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, with its undisguised use of Gershwin-like rhythms and harmonies and even melodic references to “Bess, you is my woman now” from Porgy and Bess, bears testimony to the composer’s admiration of the American jazz idiom and of Gershwin’s music in particular. Elena Baksht played it with virtuoso skill and with the sort of sassy charm that would have pleased both Ravel and Gershwin.
And Ms. Baksht’s masterful handling of the quite different second and third movements – the slow movement with its ballade-like unaccompanied piano solo section and the brilliant finale — completed the performance profile of an artist entirely at home with a variety of styles and range of moods and in virtuoso command of both the music and her instrument.
A second treat for the evening was Golden Baton winner John Patrick as guest conductor for Beethoven’s Creatures of Prometheus Overture. With both a professionally suave stage presence and a commendably consistent and accurate beat, Mr. Patrick elicited a combination of crisp orchestral response and dramatic tension that made his interpretation a highlight of the evening’s musical offerings.
Pianist Baksht also provided masterfully played segments of Mussorgsky’s original solo piano version of Pictures at an Exhibition for Maestro Rothstein’s orchestra-aided comments about Ravel’s colorful use of instrumentation un his orchestration of the work. And the RSO’s ensuing full performance, with only a couple of glitches that went by essentially unnoticed, like a bit of high woodwind rhythmical imprecision in the Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells segment, was thoroughly pleasing, with the orchestra responding sensitively to Maestro Rothstein’s characteristically fine leadership.
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