Joanna MacGregor & the National Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall, Friday 24th January.

British pianist Joanna MacGregor was in town to join the NSO for a performance of George Gershwin’s classic Rhapsody in Blue. On the podium for the evening is Andrew Gourlay, a U.K. based conductor who has been making a name for himself over the last couple of years.

Before we get to Gershwin’s Rhapsody, though, there’s a bombastic rendition of Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid Suite. Taken from Copland’s own ballet score, the suite has all the drama of the old west. By turn playful and fierce, the cannon of the bass drum calling up scenes of cavalry and war, it may not be subtle, but it surely is exciting.

Right from the start – with that famous clarinet opening, the brass and winds of the jazz orchestra massed to the side of the stage – MacGregor gets right into the swing of things. Although her piano is at times a bit lost under the combined volume of the orchestra, her playing is strong, bright, and right on point – she brings a very physical presence to the stage, moving in time with the beat, leaning ever closer to her keyboard, creating a real sense of drama.

MacGregor returns for a short encore in the form of two short solo pieces. The first is a classic from the Great American Songbook, Gershwin’s The Man I Love. MacGregor follows this with Astor Piazolla’s Libertango. Frantic and frenetic, MacGregor attacks the piano, the tension building until the explosive finale, MacGregor hammering the keys in one last flourish, jumping away from her keyboard as the last chord rings out.

Drama of a different sort comes after the interval with another suite taken from a ballet, this time Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Suite. Sweeping strings, overblown romance, it has all the Russian melodrama you’d expect from Tchaikovsky. Gourlay leads his musicians through a lively take on this well-known work, from the fire of the second movement Adagio to the famous final movement Valse. The music may be familiar, but that doesn’t lessen the fun to be had when you hear it played so well.

Gourlay turns to introduce the final selections of the evening. Taken from Ravel’s Mother Goose – five short movements based on children’s tales set – and presented tonight as a suite, Gourlay’s enthusiasm is palpable and the sense of wonder he finds in the music is clear. By the end, he and the orchestra are all smiles. This music may have been written for children, but the somewhat older crowd in the hall tonight enjoy it no less for that.

Programme

Aaron Copland – Billy the Kid Suite

George Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue

George Gershwin – The Man I Love

Astor Piazolla – Libertango

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Sleeping Beauty Suite

Maurice Ravel – Mother Goose, or ‘5 Pieces Enfantines’