Hot jazz meets cool French elegance in Gershwin’s An American in Paris, which follows one tourist’s adventures as he dodges taxis along the bustling Champs Elysées, parties in the city’s dance halls and feels pangs of homesickness.
Composed for a pianist who lost his right arm in World War I, Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand begins with a stew of deep, sinister sounds before building to a madcap, brassy march. Cédric Tiberghien — “a magician with poetic clarity” (Le Soir) — commands the stage in Ravel’s jazz-infused concerto, leaving you to wonder how such a work is performed with just one hand.
A pair of kaleidoscopic ballet scores from Roussel and Milhaud complete the evening, tracing mythological tales of love, forgiveness and the creation of the world.