French Perspectives at Severance

Last night’s concert at Severance saw guest conductor Gustavo Gimeno on the podium and the return of the Labéque sisters to Cleveland.  As with many concerts this season, the program was a nice mix of the familiar and the new, with the focus on music with connections to France which revealed the diversity behind the term “French music” – from the sensuality of Ravel to the almost Brahmsian Classicism of Franck. 

The concert opened with Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, the second time I’ve heard it here in recent years.  Whenever I hear the suite, I find myself missing the additional music that was created to expand the work into a full ballet.  The performance was paced naturally, with beautiful washes of color applied in Laideronnette and The Enchanted Garden. 

The Concerto for Two pianos by American composer Bryce Dessner received its first Cleveland performance last night.  The work is in three movements, none of which could be considered slow.  The Concerto, although distinctly modern, is firmly tonal and comprehensible even to lay people.  It also has the benefit of being clearly and creatively orchestrated, and the piano writing is a demonstration of the term “pianistic.”  The pianists, conductor, and orchestra collaborated in a performance that was virtuosic in the best sense of the word.  As is customary, our orchestra played the complex piece as if they’d known it all their lives.  The performance was greeted by a deserved and sustained ovation, and the Labéque sisters graced the audience with a apropos encore: “Maria” from West Side Story, in memory of Stephen Sondheim who passed away the previous day.  

 

The Labéque sisters and Gimeno following the Concerto.

The concert’s second half was devoted to Franck’s Symphony in D minor.  The performance began promisingly, with the mystery of the work’s opening kept intact by Gimeno’s scrupulous observation of the section’s rests, which too many well-known conductors gloss over.  From there he seemed to go into auto-pilot and, while I couldn’t find much wrong with the performance, nor could I find much that was meritorious - beyond the technical polish of the playing.  In terms of pacing, the tempi suited the work and the acoustics at Severance.  Gimeno kept a tight rein over the orchestra and there was a sense of movement even in the Allegretto.  But the dynamics ranged from mezzo-piano to fortissimo and the interweaving lines one hears so clearly from, say, Monteux, were obscured in favor of textual flatness.  The finale was exciting and brought an enthusiastic response from the small, socially distanced audience.

I noticed the unobtrusive presence of cameras in the auditorium, so those with the Adella app may be able to watch this concert in the not too distant future.

Cancelled concerts in Cleveland and music in Hudson

The fallout from COVID-19 continues as the Cleveland Orchestra cancelled two concerts this past weekend due to a player testing positive and showing symptoms for COVID-19.  I had been scheduled to attend Saturday night’s concert with guest conductor Thierry Fischer and pianist Tom Borrow – making his Cleveland debut.  A well-connected source has informed me that the affected player was part of the brass section – and we wish the player a safe and speedy recovery.  The nature of wind and brass instruments makes the playing of them while wearing a mask impossible, and at the same time poses a risk to those nearby – the player’s breath, spittle, and germs are literally sent flying.  Thus requiring the player to sit out this concert made sense.  But the cancellation begs the question as to what would have happened it the player was, say, a violinist.  There are enough string players that the orchestra could continue even if a few were unavailable – and in smaller ensemble works the orchestra often utilizes only part of its string section.  Currently, the orchestra is requiring all patrons to be vaccinated, wear masks, and submit to temperature checks upon entry.  Clearly they are doing everything they can to keep local music lovers safe.  But the cancellation also causes one to question what contingencies the orchestra has in the event of further cases among brass and wind players.  Can substitute players be arranged?  It seems to me there is no shortage of gifted young instrumentalists at the nearby Cleveland Institute of Music who would jump at the chance to play with the Cleveland Orchestra.  True, a substitute with limited rehearsal time might result in a performance not having that last bit of polish associated with our orchestra.  But a blooper here or there seems a small price to pay for the continued riches our deservedly world renown orchestra furnishes.  After all, as Toscanini said, “for a few wrong notes no one was ever thrown into jail.”  Despite vaccinations and boosters, it appears COVID-19 and its variants are going to be with us for the foreseeable future.  With audiences willing to take the precautions and endure the mild discomfort of wearing masks, it seems an overreach to hold performances hostage when other contingencies are available.  

The weekend was not entirely bereft of music.  The Hudson based concert series Music from the Western Reserve continued with a duo-pianist recital from husband/wife team Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Emanuela Friscioni.  The program included music by Hindemith, Barber, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff.  All but the Hindemith were familiar to me, and all were exceptionally well played.  Before the concert the pianists engaged in a charming talk about the music, the challenges of duo playing on a single piano, and their personal stories.  At least four more concerts are scheduled for the remainder of the season.

Cleveland welcomes Sheku Kanneh-Mason

The Cleveland Orchestra hosted the return of guest conductor Jakub Hrůša and the Cleveland debut of cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason this past weekend.  The repertoire featured ranged from the unfamiliar to the slightly familiar – something of a pattern this season.

The concert opened with the Ballade in A minor, Op. 33 by British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.  The work, composed in 1898, marked the professional conducting debut of the young man who was born out of wedlock into one of London’s poorest neighborhoods in 1875.  The Ballade is in the mid-Romantic style of Tchaikovsky and Dvořák – with similar orchestration.  Hrůša and the orchestra contributed a performance marked by sensible tempi and technical polish.  As I’d never heard this music before, I can’t compare it to any other performances or recordings.

Elgar’s Cello Concerto was initially a flop when it was premiered in 1919.  The work’s failure, the result of an unrehearsed performance, deeply wounded the composer (not for the first time in history, as Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony suffered the same fate as conducted by a drunken Alexander Glazunov).  The concerto did not achieve notability until the 1960s when Jaqueline du Pré began championing the piece – but still it’s not a repertoire staple.  To be sure, the concerto is a stark, challenging work.   Composed in the aftermath of a serious illness and during the First World War, it features moments of soaring lyricism contrasted with an almost agonized temperament – a world away from the same composer’s Pomp and Circumstance marches or even the Enigma Variations. 

Sheku Kanneh-Mason became a sensation in 2018 when he played at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – a televised event seen by some two billion people.  At the time I was stuck by the beauty of Kanneh-Mason’s playing and surety of his technique.  Needless to say, anyone who can play with such serenity and finish in front of so many demonstrates the quality of grace under pressure.  To the Elgar Concerto, Kanneh-Mason brought impeccable technique, variety of tonal shadings, and an ample dynamic range  - all put in service to the music.  Hrůša and the orchestra collaborated with an intensity of expression that matched the soloist.  The performance was followed by a very enthusiastic and sustained ovation, which led Kanneh-Mason to gift the audience with an encore: a brief contemplative piece which was unfamiliar to me.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason receives a well-earned ovation.

I first heard Dvořák’s Sixth Symphony as a teenager, listening to a scratchy 78rpm album of the work found in my grandmother’s basement as played by the Cleveland Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf.  Aside from the third movement Scherzo, a delightful Furiant characterized by alternating two-beat and three-beat measures and surprise cadences, I found the work unmemorable.  But I was only about 16 years old, and my musical ideas were not fully formed – if they ever are.  I’ve heard the work several times over the years, and while there are worthy passages in every movement, along with fine orchestration, I find the work does not exceed the sum of its parts the way the composer’s last three Symphonies do.  Hrůša led the opening movement in an expansive manner, with dashes of orchestral color that revealed the work’s rustic character.  The work’s second movement Agagio was serene and soulful, with lovely woodwind playing.  The Furiant went at a bouncing tempo that was, well, furious, with the movement’s tricky rhythms tossed-off impeccably – an example of brilliant orchestra playing that resulted in an audible “whoo!” from a member of the audience.  Following on that, the finale insinuated itself into the proceedings with merriment until an unbuttoned, declamatory coda that, as they say, brought the house down.