Last night we attended a concert by the excellent Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under its charismatic conductor, Marin Alsop in an all-American programme. I have made tangential references to South American Spanish connections in these articles, but not to the important North American scene. A neglect which as this musical journey continues I must try to remedy.<\/p>\n
Last night we heard some idiomatically performed Gershwin \u2013 \u2018An American in Paris\u2019 and the \u2018Rhapsody in Blue\u2019 given a flamboyant performance by the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski. After the interval the rarely played 2nd \u2018Shorter\u2019 Symphony by Aaron Copland was given a taut, precise performance and the warm rather than enthusiastic applause at its end suggested that the audience understood its lack of popularity. An interesting, but at least for us, not an engaging work. However this was followed by a sumptuous suite based on Leonard Bernstein\u2019s score for the 1950\u2019s film \u2018On the Waterfront\u2019, which brought the house down. It was an excellent climax to an enjoyable evening. ( The same artists have recorded the suite together with other Bernstein works on a Naxos disc.)<\/p>\n
But then we were treated to an encore. Sir Thomas Beecham in the far away days when he conducted his two Philharmonic Orchestras \u2013 Royal and London \u2013 could always be depended on in this respect. He called his encores, \u2018Lollipops\u2019. Last night\u2019s was a very luscious one! With the help of the B.S.O.\u2019s Concerts Administrator, Marion Aston, I gather that the piece is called \u2018Victory Stride\u2019 by the American-African composer James Price Johnson, a contemporary of Gershwin\u2019s.<\/p>\n
With the invaluable help of Wikipaedia I discover Johnson composed the popular \u2018Charleston\u2019, arguably the defining dance number of the Roaring Twenties and invented a new form of popular music called \u2018stride\u2019 which is full of changes of rhythm and key, the music doubling back on itself in a fury of constant energy. That\u2019s just how this piece sounded in a brilliant version that had sections of the orchestra standing up for their contributions to the feigned surprise of the conductor, who in response to the enthusiasm of the audience had to lead her players off the platform as we pleaded for more. On this hearing Johnson\u2019s music deserves a revival of the sort that Scott Joplin\u2019s comparable style enjoyed some years ago.<\/p>\n
B.R.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last night we attended a concert by the excellent Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under its charismatic conductor, Marin Alsop in an all-American programme. I have made tangential references to South American Spanish connections in these articles, but not to the important North American scene. A neglect which as this musical journey continues I must try to remedy. Last night we heard some idiomatically performed Gershwin \u2013 \u2018An American in Paris\u2019 and the \u2018Rhapsody in Blue\u2019 given a flamboyant performance by the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski. After the interval the rarely played 2nd \u2018Shorter\u2019 Symphony by Aaron Copland was given a taut, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n