Latest news with #Thibaudet
San Francisco Chronicle
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump canceled his Pride concert, but Michael Feinstein found his spotlight in San Francisco
The Great American Songbook has a unique way of bridging gaps between musicians and listeners from all different backgrounds. Singer, pianist and standards ambassador Michael Feinstein and acclaimed classical soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet serve as a perfect example. As a duo, they've found common ground in this popular repertoire by the likes of Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin and especially the Gershwin brothers. An enthusiastic audience at Davies Symphony Hall on Tuesday, May 20, discovered just how well these two superstars in their respective genres can mesh. Feinstein and Thibaudet co-headlined a special one-night-only concert with the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of longtime Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, and the performance was by turns entertaining, educational and moving. Feinstein has recently made headlines for decidedly non-celebratory reasons. His Kennedy Center engagement with the National Symphony Orchestra, 'A Peacock Among Pigeons: Celebrating 50 Years of Pride,' scheduled for this week, was canceled by the Trump administration. So Tuesday's program was triumphant in contrast, commencing with an energetic orchestral overture before Feinstein and Thibaudet walked onto the stage flashing winning smiles and sporting matching sparkly tuxedo jackets with satin shawl collars. Seated at interlocking Steinway grand pianos, the pair faced one another as they started into a rendition of Berlin's 'I Love a Piano,' featuring Feinstein's impassioned singing. Given Feinstein's impeccable credentials, including as host of the onetime public radio series 'Song Travels,' it seemed safe to assume that he'd do all of the talking. But both musicians spoke with welcoming rapport for a show that felt like a natural extension of their 'Gershwin Rhapsody' album, released last year to celebrate the 100th anniversary of 'Rhapsody in Blue.' As founder of the Great American Songbook Foundation, Feinstein shared stories of his musical acquaintances going back decades, from conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein to lyricist Irving Caesar, whose popular song 'Tea for Two' concluded the first set of the evening. Feinstein also spoke about his six years as personal assistant to lyricist Ira Gershwin, older brother and primary songwriting partner of composer George. Thibaudet reflected on his upbringing as a French conservatory student. Sharing an anecdote about George Gershwin and Maurice Ravel, the pianist served as something of an audience surrogate — someone with an appreciation of American Songbook standards if not Feinstein's comprehensive knowledge. In a way, it was not unlike an evening at Feinstein's San Francisco nightclub at Hotel Nikko. But the orchestra, with Lockhart at the helm, really made it an event. Thibaudet performed the third movement from Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F with proper symphonic accompaniment. (He mentioned that he first played the piece at age 14.) And the second-half 'Gershwin Fantasy' was a tour de force, stuffed with favorites like 'Someone to Watch Over Me,' 'I Got Rhythm' and 'Embraceable You' and bookended by the original two-piano arrangement of 'Rhapsody.' An encore of the Gershwins' 'Love Is Here to Stay' ended the program on a poignant note. It was George's last composition, and Ira completed the lyrics posthumously, Feinstein pointed out. He posited that the song is about the brothers' relationship. But when he crooned the opening lines — 'It's very clear / Our love is here to stay / Not for a year / But ever and a day' — it was hard not to think about the power of timeless standards too.
The Guardian
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Erica Jeal's classical album of the month
This is a passion project for Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who has wanted to record Aram Khachaturian's Piano Concerto for more than two decades. The only question is why he didn't get round to it sooner. Written in 1936 but little-known now, the concerto is a giant, Technicolor work that's a great fit both for Thibaudet's flamboyant yet precise playing style and for the LA Philharmonic and their conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Khachaturian, born in Georgia into an Armenian family, was a composer with one foot in Soviet Russia and one in the Caucasus, and that comes through in music that's a distinctive, inseparable mixture of Russian popular Romanticism with eastern modes and harmonies. The middle movement, incidentally, includes a rare outing for the musical saw, which here hovers eerily above the big tune as if someone were whistling along in the recording studio. Thibaudet fills the rest of the disc with solo pieces, starting with the eminently recognisable love theme from Spartacus (in Thibaudet's own skilful transcription) and the Sabre Dance from Gayane, his other hit ballet. Then, offering calm after the concerto's storm, there are six miniatures from his Pictures from Childhood and the suite of incidental music he wrote for Lermontov's play Masquerade, the work of a true theatre composer.
