By Douglas Levy

For the weekend just past, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra served up a Franco-American menu of 20^th century music and welcomed to its podium for the fourth time Keith Lockhart, who is celebrating his thirtieth season as Conductor of the Boston Pops.

The crown jewel of his program was Ferde Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite. The five-movement tone poem began with “Sunrise”: the stillness of dawn in the desert was deftly expressed with occasional honking in the brass (a flight of birds, perhaps, or cars lined up waiting for this popular National Park to open its gates.) As the sun burned off the fog, the orchestra built in power as day began, with Grofé asking triple-forté from all the musicians. Indeed, the sound became so powerful that it turned a bit mushy (something several more stands of string players would rectify.)

In the “Painted Desert” second movement, the chiaroscuro of orchestral sounds, static and suspended in the air, captured the various tones of gray and umber of the desert.

The third and best-known movement, “On the Trail” began with Concertmaster Nikki Chooi’s expert imitation of a braying mule that is followed by the beast’s clopping gait as man and animal descended into the canyon. The bell-like solo tinkling of the celesta stepped forward as, camp pitched for the night, the stars came out overhead.

Movement four, “Sunset,” had a coming home feeling as the colorful rhapsody of evening was heralded by call-and-response horns.

The concluding “Cloudburst” recalled musically the day’s events, but the solo cello with lightly stroked gong warned of an approaching storm. The torrent blew apart as the orchestra fearlessly described the danger of sudden flash flooding. The deluge passed and, much like the last movement of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, there was a sense of grateful rejoicing as Grofé recalled themes from “Sunrise.”

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Germaine Tailleferre was a much-admired composer in her native France, although on two occasions she lived in the U.S. While the men in her life (her father and two husbands) did little to support her music, Tailleferre was encouraged by Maurice Ravel. She produced literally scores of scores of music.

Overture for Orchestra was intended to introduce an opera but that work has been lost. Interestingly, Overture, as well as the Grofé and Ravel works on the program, were all written within twelve months of each other during 1931 and 1932.

Overture was played by the BPO (for the second time in five years) with gusto, highlighted the ingratiating syncopations and modern tonal freedom, like a happy circus had come to town.

The second Tailleferre work, Petite Suite, dating from 1957, was a portrait of the composer playing with her granddaughter. The work opened dreamily and evolved into a simple child’s song being taken up by brass and winds. Then a rocking motif is introduced, like a swing from a tree-limb, after which there was a thumping march as grandmama returned her little girl to the nursery.

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Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major was given a lush and leisurely rendition by soloist Clayton Stephenson, Keith Lockhart and the BPO. This concerto is the most requested of Lockhart at guest appearances.

It is also a work that the twenty-six-year-old Stephenson has only this year added to his repertoire; he sounded like he had been playing it all his life. I didn’t have a stopwatch, but I’m sure the languorous interpretation by soloist and conductor was longer than any I have heard on record.

As only the second performer to play the BPO’s spanking-new Steinway, Stephenson glowed in his presentation of Ravel’s masterpiece. His playing was solid, pristine and clear as day in the first movement, which followed conventual lines of soloist playing with supporting tutti. The more introverted second movement was very personal and reflective, with wonderful rhythmic interplay as left and right hands enjoy a ballet. The final movement had the piano poking its nose into new thematic material while the rest of the band burped and sparkled idiomatic phrases; the whole movement was like a “concerto for orchestra.”

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There were two encores: Stephenson delivered a rhapsody on George Gershwin’s “Summertime” of his own invention. Then, at the very end of a bang-up great concert, Lockhart turned to the audience and, acknowledging his credentials as a member of the Patriot Nation, said “Go Bills” and led the BPO in the “Shout” song.

The reviewer: After three decades as a public radio broadcaster, Douglas Levy returned to his native Buffalo to write about music and whatever else someone is willing to pay for.