Brit stakes claim to America's Gershwin

By Steven Brown
The Charltote Observer

Considering that George Gershwin helped make American music what it is, the Charlotte Symphony may not have needed an Englishman, of all people, to show them how to play "Rhapsody in Blue" or "Porgy and Bess." But Christopher Warren-Green had reasons for being on the podium Friday night.

Part of his mission as the orchestra's new music director is to make himself known to all its audiences, not just those at the Classics concerts. So he's conducting the all-Gershwin Pops program this weekend - leading the orchestra and, between numbers, serving as a chatty guide to Gershwin.

One of Warren-Green's anecdotes: At a party, Gershwin met Maurice Ravel, the celebrated French composer, and asked if Ravel might give him some music lessons. Ravel responded by asking how much money Gershwin made. After Gershwin, the toast of Broadway, answered, Ravel said that maybe Gershwin should give lessons to him.

In 2011, maybe Gershwin's music transcends nationality. In any case, the orchestra by and large supplied generous helpings of sleekness and pizazz Friday night.

The Latin rhythms of the "Cuban Overture" crackled, though the strings were sometimes drowned out. The players with solos in the "Rhapsody in Blue" - clarinetist Eugene Kavadlo, trumpeter Richard Harris and trombonist John Bartlett - cut loose with a brashness that brought back some of the jazziness that sometimes gets lost in the music's orchestral version.

There was further help in that department from the piano soloist, Orion Weiss. His zip, spontaneity and suave turns magnified the music's free spirit. Soprano Jonita Lattimore brought her own freedom to "Our Love is Here to Stay" and other songs, thanks to her ease at switching between conversational coziness and flights of melody.

Meanwhile, English or not, Warren-Green made his own contributions. In a "Porgy" suite, he helped the strings savor "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," and he brought out the slinky instrumental byplay in "It Ain't Necessarily So." He wasn't just along for the ride."