It was Kahane times 2, as father and son presented their first-ever formal concert together Friday evening at Gates Concert Hall as part of Newman Center Presents.
Jeffrey Kahane, former music director of the Colorado Symphony and a renowned pianist, is well known to Denver audiences. But most probably know little about his son, Gabriel, a fast-rising New York vocalist, pianist and composer.
The younger Kahane is part of an exciting new group of musicians who straddle the worlds of classical and popular music and give little, if any, thought to stylistic and historical boundaries.
It was in that spirit of musical openness that the two presented an engaging, refreshingly diverse 90-minute program, turning classical music inside out, mixing old and new and spicing it all with anecdotes and banter.
The heart of the program was Franz Schubert’s Four Impromptus, Op. 90, D. 899 (played by the elder Kahane with his usual vibrancy and intelligence), interspersed, with hardly a pause, with four of Gabriel’s amplified songs performed by him from the keyboard.
It was a startling yet ultimately revealing and complementary grouping. Gabriel’s evocative works, written with a contemporary singer-songwriter sensibility, contain sophisticated, classical-tinged accompaniments that seem to echo the Schubert at times.
Gabriel has a light, buoyant voice with an air of vulnerability that suited these songs, as well as four classical art songs, including his poignant, transporting take on Charles Ives’ “Tom Sails Away.”
Other highlights included two selections from the younger Kahane’s witty and wonderfully inventive “Craigslistlieder.” (How soon can he come back to perform the work in its entirety?)
Wondering what Denver’s classical scene needs more of? Unconventional, imaginative and crowd-pleasing programs like this one.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@
