Nero delightfully mixes classics, improvs, jazz for 10th-year opener

Monday, October 25, 2004

Zachary Lewis

Plain Dealer Music Critic

The audience at the Cleveland Pops Orchestra's 10th anniversary season-opening concert Friday night at Severance Hall got a surprisingly strong dose of the classical composers.

Peter Nero, the veteran keyboard artist and soloist/host that night, often sounded like a jazzy Rachmaninoff as he recalled many of classical music's greatest hits while spinning ornate improvisations on Broadway and film music.

Excerpts from a Mozart piano sonata, for instance, punctuated the deliciously chaotic prose in a set of jazz variations on "I Got Rhythm." Earlier, the brooding motif from the "Moonlight" Sonata served as the launch pad to freestyle musing in Cole Porter's tribute to Beethoven.

Besides the orchestra, Nero was accompanied by his colleagues in the Peter Nero Trio, bassist Michael Barnett and drummer George Mazzeo. Both got a chance to show off during an encore with trombonist Paul Ferguson and trumpeter Jack Schantz.

Particularly impressive was Nero's second solo flight in Jerome Kern's "All the Things You Are." Nero gave himself insufficient credit in labeling it "quasi-Baroque." In reality, the solo was a challenging fugue that would have made Bach smile. Nowhere was Nero's digital freedom more apparent or inspiring.

Nero also managed to be an engaging host. Joking with the audience between sets, he mentioned his Grammy for "best slightly used" artist.

The one classical piece to receive a complete performance, "Rhapsody in Blue," was also the one much of the audience likely came to hear. Nero is a noted advocate of its composer, having performed Gershwin's music to great acclaim throughout his long career.

Nero's "Rhapsody" on this occasion was anything but predictable. He outlined the catchy main theme with bold rhythmic edges, contrasting it with a sensual, fluid account of the slow middle section.

Friday's "Evening with Peter Nero" began with the orchestra in the swing classic "Sing, Sing, Sing." The piece was already under way when conductor Carl Topilow strolled onstage playing his trademark red clarinet and wearing a matching red tuxedo vest and bow tie.

Following clearer and more graceful performances of the overture to "Gypsy" and Duke Ellington's "Caravan," with vocalist Barbara Knight (in lieu of Susan Hesse, who had laryngitis), Topilow introduced Mell Csicsila, the soloist in Joseph Green's "Xylophonia," as "the most outstanding red-headed xylophonist in the world."

The humorous claim was easy to believe as Csicsila's mallets scampered over the instrument, yielding a frolicsome melody. The talented redhead paused only to sound a few appropriate quacks on a duck caller.

The last classical composer heard Friday night was Leonard Bernstein. Nero wrapped up with a lengthy montage he called it a "2004 Exploration" from "West Side Story."

Each of the show's famous songs appeared briefly in their original forms before Nero and the orchestra translated them into roaring jam sessions. They marked the end of the concert, but an exuberant start to the Cleveland Pops Orchestra's 10th year.