David Bernard leads the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony in an “InsideOut” concert at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in NYC.
In Monday’s (2/12) Substack, Will Friedwald writes, “On the occasion of the centennial of ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ there were two major performances by … the New York Pops, with the estimable Lee Musicker playing the central piano role at Carnegie Hall, and the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony directed by David Bernard, with Ted Rosenthal at the keyboard, at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music … This was my introduction to the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony and what Mr. Bernard calls the ‘InsideOut’ mode of presentation: the audience and the orchestra are interspersed with each other…. This ‘immersive’ approach to music is quite remarkable … Bernard represented Gershwin’s opera ‘Porgy and Bess’ with a 13-minute version of ‘Porgy and Bess:’ Selection for Orchestra … Piano soloist Ted Rosenthal … made this one of the more memorable performances … of the ‘Rhapsody’ by … making embellishments and minor changes that were very much in the Gershwin wheelhouse… The highlight … was ‘An American in Paris’ (1928)…. As originally written by Gershwin—and documented in a 1929 recording that he participated in … It’s a literal, jazz-influenced symphonic depiction of Paris between the wars, encompassing all the chaos, randomness, and high drama of contemporary urban life.”
