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11/14/2024
“My American Story – North”
John W. Green (arr. A. Tatum) (trans. D. Trifonov): I Cover the Waterfront [2]
George Gershwin: Concerto in F [1, 3]
Aaron Copland: Piano Variations [2]
Victor Young (arr. B. Evans): When I Fall in Love [2]
John Adams: China Gates [2]
John Corigliano: Fantasia on an Ostinato [2] ^
Dave Grusin: Memphis Stomp [5] ^
Thomas Newman: American Beauty [2] ^
Mason Bates: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra [1, 4] ^
John Cage (Field version: Cage & Columbus): 4’33” [6]
Daniil Trifonov (piano), The Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet‑Séguin (conductor) [1]
Recording: Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, State University of New York (December 19, 2023) [2]; Kimmel Cultural Campus, Verizon Hall (now Marian Anderson Hall), Philadelphia (January 2022 [4] & October 8, 2023 [3]); The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Cary Hall, New York City (April 22, 2024) [5]; Central Park, Columbus Circle, New York City (April 2024) [6] (^ World Premiere Recording) – 102’11
Deutsche Grammophon 000289486657 (2 CDs) (Distributed by Universal Music) – Booklet in English and German
 
Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov is the guest soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra. His stoic, focused intensity captivates audiences in Marian Anderson Hall (née Verizon) as he hovers over the piano keys, his hair haywire while communicating that his appearance is all about the music. The other onstage musicians balance with a synergy between Yannick Nézet‑Séguin and Trifonov.
This live performance has immediacy, of course, that’s elusive in studio sessions, but it peaks through “My American Story – North” with Trifonov and The Philadelphians mixing it up with a smorgasbord of works by American composers. Trifonov has lived in the US for half of his life and he cites his personal connection to a diverse repertoire that “has given me access to many perspectives, styles, cultures, places, people, stories, and forms of expression that have shaped and molded my experience of America.” He will be following this release with a playlist of Latin American repertoire.
“North” opens beguilingly with the blue‑note style of Art Tatum’s jazz noir classic I Cover the Waterfront. It is the perfect appetizer to the defining stylistic fusion of Gershwin’s Concerto in F. This symphonic bombast conjures the wiliness of the jazz‑age and the collective dreams of an American metropolis. Trifonov, the protagonist, at the piano, expresses Gershwin’s articulation of the diasporic sound world. In turn, The Philadelphians deliver a solid, showpiece performance with Trifonov in top form, leaning into Gershwin’s musical aesthetic.
Just as impressive (and perhaps even more interesting) for this collection is Aaron Copland’s Piano Variations which are too rarely performed on the concert stage or on studio recordings. The Variations contain abstract and dissonant structure, revealing Copland’s more adventurous ideas, exploring a new sound world territory which veer away from his symphonic hooks that defined his signature style. Leonard Bernstein wrote to Copland in 1938, after hearing a performance, citing the work’s uniqueness: “...American sound into musical terms. I feel convinced that there is such a thing. Or else why is it that the variations sound fresh and vital and not stale and European and dry?” Trifonov clearly is inside Copland’s feral musicality. This is one that one hopes to hear in the concert hall yet fails. This is a stellar substitute.
On a classic composed by the man Billie Holiday christened ‘Prez’, jazz master saxophonist Victor Young’s When I Fall in Love reveals Trifonov blooming this standard without vamping the emotion. John Adam’s China Gates meditation (moto perpetuo) displays Trifonov clockwork precision inside the composer’s crystalline lyricism. Another work that also isn’t heard enough on the concert stage is John Corigliano’s Fantasia on an Ostinato with its moody motifs that wander in different directions. Here, Trifonov is lost in the composer’s musical maze, detailing all of its haunted shadows. After all that musical headiness, Trifonov shows off his stride piano swagger with Dave Grusin’s Memphis Stomp and on Thomas Newman’s dreamy theme American Beauty with echoes of Satie.
In a commission by The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mason Bates composed the three movement Concerto for Piano and Orchestra for Trifonov. Bates is among those millennial composers who is rooted in the 20th century template: it’s a jumping off point of fusionist aesthetic. The first movement opens with the strings pulsing at full force while Trifonov angularly surfs in and out of the waves. A wending symphonic thrust gives way to sonorous horn heralds in the second movement in a duel with Trifonov’s fiery piano riffs. Bates laces in cinematic interludes and a Russian neoclassic mise en scène. The third movement has a more driving contemporary feel which showcases virtuosity, catapulted by its triumphal orchestral fireworks.
As admirable as it is for Trifonov to be open to John Cage’s experimental music, and the confluence of human and environmental sounds, 4’33” (Field version) strikes as filler in this collection. 4’33’ indicates its length, and in Trifonov’s ‘Field Version’ it refers to the time signature and the sounds of the subway station with the doors opening, rails screeching, people talking and kids laughing. For Trifonov, however, not one note is derived from the piano. Cage leaves it open to the musician’s discretion to compose instrumental notes, silent cadenzas or create another sound world altogether. Trifonov even ‘performed’ the piece in concert halls with his hands folded on his lap as he stared over his piano keys with steely control: any sound, musical or otherwise, would be from the concert hall. But as a closing piece on “North”, his Cage adaptation brings this recording to a screeching halt. Maybe he should have chosen a more assessable composition or maybe just jumped over this track and taken the A‑Train uptown. Cue music!
Lewis J. Whittington
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