Hartford Symphony, The Bushnell, Hartford, CT
October 11-13, 2019
by Michael J. Moran
To launch the HSO’s 76th anniversary season and her own 9th
season as its Music Director, Carolyn Kuan selected an all-American program
which fittingly began with the traditional season-opening singalong national
anthem, backed by a projection of the American flag behind the stage of the
Belding Theater at the Bushnell.
The concert proper kicked off in high gear with Leonard
Bernstein’s “Candide Overture.” In an elegant, refined account, Kuan’s careful
balancing of orchestral sections at a barely restrained tempo revealed more
inner detail than often emerges in a live performance of this exuberant score,
but with no loss of the requisite excitement.
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| Kevin Cole |
Long recognized as one of the world’s leading Gershwin
pianists, Kevin Cole next played an energetic rendition of that composer’s
virtuosic “I Got Rhythm” Variations, followed by an even more bracing
presentation of his jazzy “Rhapsody in Blue.” Kuan and the musicians supported
him with panache in both works, particularly principal clarinetist Curt Blood’s
sinuous take on the opening clarinet solo in “Rhapsody.” Standing ovations
brought Cole back on stage for two solo encores: his own dazzling
embellishments on Gershwin’s “Fascinating Rhythm” and, one more time, “I Got
Rhythm.”
In a brief interview by Kuan between pieces, Cole told her
that he had probably played “Rhapsody” over a thousand times by now. Even more
remarkably, he has been deaf in one ear since 2018.
The concert closed after intermission with a vibrant account
of what many critics consider “the great American symphony,” Aaron Copland’s
third. Written in 1944-1946, it incorporates the composer’s famous 1942
“Fanfare for the Common Man” in its last movement. Committed playing by all HSO
sections under Kuan’s dynamic leadership, from a spacious opening “Molto
moderato,” through a forceful “Allegro molto,” a brooding “Andantino quasi allegretto,”
and a stirring final “Molto deliberato – Allegro risoluto,” made a strong case
for the piece.
The American theme of this program was also appropriate to
follow the third annual naturalization ceremony in which this year ten
Connecticut residents became new citizens of the United States on the Belding
stage just before the Saturday concert.
