Ravinia 2022, Issue 4

CHARLES BEST REPERTORY RIFFS Wayne Marshall keys up the opportunity to play By Mark ThoMas keTTerson B ACK IN THE LATE 1980S, in what now seems like an almost mythical time when stone-and-mortar record shops were releasing floods of compact discs that cost half a week’s salary, music lovers all over the globe were saving their pennies for an exciting new recording to be released on EMI. It was George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with Simon Rattle and the London Philharmonic. Note-complete and based on Rattle’s recent production of the op- era at Glyndebourne, this was the first digitally recorded Porgy , and a sonic won- der. One of the great delights in the set is heard in opera’s first few minutes, as the jazz pianist character Jasbo Brown riffs away on the overture’s themes for an extended period. Often severely truncated, the episode was here given complete, and the virtuosic, improvisatory interlude sets the tone of the piece to perfection. You want to hit “repeat” and hear it over and over. The Jasbo was British conductor, keyboardist, and composer Wayne Marshall, caught here on the brink of what has become a dazzling international career. Marshall is one of contemporary classical music’s most interesting figures, whose musicianship has brought him to venues all over the world. His vast recorded output reveals an astonishing breadth of activity, ranging from standard classical organ repertory to music of Bach, Liszt, Brahms, and the entire Gershwin piano canon. He has conducted the operas of Jake Heggie and John Harbison, pre- miered James MacMillan’s organ concerto, and held conducting posts with the WDR Funkhausorchester and Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. What is fascinating about Marshall, however, is that despite his beginnings in more orthodox rep, this British-born, British-trained artist has primarily made his name as a supreme interpreter of American music. Ravinia will hear him on August 3 in a suite from Porgy as well as in the music of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim . “For me,” Marshall explains, “your American music is just as important as any Beethoven, or Haydn, or Mozart, or Brahms, or whatever. It’s the same to me. It’s not to be taken lightly. Porgy and Bess is a phenomenally difficult score. Yes, Gershwin wrote some light stuff, but some very serious stuff as well. And the music is not easy.” Marshall was born in Oldham, Lancashire, to parents who originally hailed from Barbados. His family was very musical, including his two sisters. As a child, he was thrilled by the sound of the organ at church. “Church music was the bedrock of our musical education and upbringing,” he recalls. By age 3, Marshall was beginning to play the music he heard at church by ear. More remarkably, he RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 1 – AUGUST 14, 2022 6 CHARLES BEST