Talk about multitalented.
Jeffrey Kahane has distinguished himself during his four seasons as music director of the Colorado Symphony, but his most profound love is the piano.
He stepped off the podium and sat down at the keyboard Thursday evening in the ideally suited Gates Concert Hall for a special recital benefiting the symphony. It was a rare and welcome opportunity to experience his piano artistry alone and in depth.
It is easy, of course, to support a local favorite. But it was not boosterism to praise this superlative performance.
Although Kahane is an impeccable technician and a bit of a showman when need be, one left this concert most of all with the lingering image of him as a conjurer of moods, a teller of stories.
This could be heard not only in obvious places such as the five selections from Kenneth Frazelle’s “Wildflowers” (2005), enticing miniature evocations of flora, but also in the heart of this program — Franz Schubert’s late masterpiece, Piano Sonata in A major, D. 959.
In a pre-concert interview, Kahane said he has performed this work for at least 20 years, but it was impossible to tell. There was a freshness and sense of spontaneity about his playing — constant, minutely responsive adjustments in touch and timbre to the music’s every shift.
In his reflective take on the slow second movement, he burrowed deep into this music, uncovering its quiet vulnerability and affecting power. Then came the unfettered kineticism of the scherzo, with Kahane infusing it with just the right playfulness.
(The order of the work’s final two movements was reversed in the program, no doubt sparking some confusion.)
The second half began on a contemporary note, with “Wildflowers” and the world premiere of “Django: Tiny Variations on a Big Dog” by Gabriel Kahane, the pianist’s son. This six-minute work was appealing enough, with a theme and five short variations, each with finger-twisting juxtapositions of rhythms.
Though meant as a tribute to the pianist’s dog, named in honor of jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, not all the sections conjured immediate mind pictures. A notable exception was the last variation’s jazzy shuffle.
After a well-balanced group of short works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, the pianist offered one encore: an eloquent, dignified version of “America the Beautiful.”
Kahane will repeat this program at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 16 in Aspen’s Harris Concert Hall.
