The spirit of America

Setting a precedent gender-wise, American Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney presented American conductor Laura Jackson in a resoundingly successful concert last Oct. 10 at the CCP main theater.

“The Spirit of America” concert featured brisk, exuberant, breezy, jaunty, free-wheeling, progressive music which encapsulated the spirit of America — indeed the kind which, if this reviewer might be permitted an aside, keeps Senators McCain, Obama, Biden and Gov. Palin claiming, in their campaign speeches, that America is the greatest country in the world.

Except for John Williams’ “Five Sacred Trees”, the selections were familiar, popular, well-loved. Gershwin’s folk opera Porgy and Bess, based and inspired by Negro life, rituals and culture, included such songs as Summertime, I Got Plenty of Nuthin’, It Ain’t Necessarily So, Bess, You Is My Woman Now.

Gershwin’s tone poem for orchestra, An American in Paris had a film version starring dancers Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. The surging music described an American dancing with abandon on the streets of Paris or excitedly viewing the sights; the slow, lyrical passages conveyed his homesickness and nostalgia.

A story goes that when Gershwin was commissioned to compose a symphony, he crossed the street from his lodgings to buy a book on symphonies from a music store. The anecdote is probably apocryphal but Gershwin did lack formal music education, with musicologists pointing to his “awkward modulations, strained transitions and obscure instrumentation.”

Nevertheless, his genius is obvious in his original juxtaposition of jazz and syncopation with the classic idiom, in the quaint, charming and spontaneous manner he composed. He was, in fact, a supreme melodist, and no matter how often the audience hears his songs, they always sound fresh and enchanting.

In Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story, both the Broadway musical and the film version came to mind. The songs Maria, Somewhere, and the riveting clash between the Jets and the Sharks crept in, the latter in the most stirring, robust manner.

The young, slim, attractive Jackson, wearing a black pantsuit, waved the baton over the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, her left hand as graceful as that of a ballet dancer. Demonstrating tremendous vitality and dynamism, she articulated the emotional content of each work at its most urgent, arresting and appealing, the dynamics — the surges of tone — reaching the most daunting volumes, yet fully controlled. She drew the best from the PPO which, in fact, outdid itself while thoroughly inspired by her sparkle, her perceptive and interpretive skill.

After the opening Gershwin composition, Jackson explained Williams’ “Five Sacred Trees”. Each movement, she said, was a song rendered before each tree was cut down, the fourth and fifth movements being jaggéd and angular. Actually, each movement sounded jaggéd and angular to this reviewer, innovatively and distinctively orchestrated.

Bassoon player Adolfo Mendoza began the composition with a long solo: here and thereafter, he proved his technical expertise, particularly in the rapid, florid passages, as well as his sensitivity in the emotive, lambent lines.

In the second movement, “Tortan”, the concert master, the second violins, violas and cellos predominantly accompanied the bassoon; in the third, “Eó Rossa”, an extensive dialogue between bassoon soloist Mendoza and harpist Lourdes de Leon-Gregorio ensued. The finale, slow and melancholy, featured the bassoon and the flute. The work was strange, weird, yet intriguing and fascinating, with the orchestra under Jackson eloquently etching and delineating Williams’ craft.

During the standing ovation, Ambassador Kenney placed a lei on Conductor Jackson after which she joined the rapturous applause. It was doubtless an evening of masterly music-making, with the PPO, under Jackson’s direction, pointing up the brilliance of the composers and, not the least, the rousing spirit of America. Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, coming up next!

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Alfredo Roces’ “Explorations” at the Crucible Gallery Oct. 14-26.