Mozart and Bruckner at Severance

It was an evening of contrasts at Severance Hall as pianist Garrick Ohlsson strode on stage to play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K.595 with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by music director Franz Welser-Möst.  The first surprise was the presence of Ohlsson himself, announced just a few days ago as a substitute for Igor Levit, who had to cancel due to illness.  I’ve seen Ohlsson in concert several times, including twice in Busoni’s massive Piano Concerto – the polar opposite of Mozart’s relatively modest work. 

It was common for years to consider this, Mozart’s last work in the genre, as a sort of valedictory – even autumnal – work, given that it was first performed just nine months before the composer’s death in 1791.  More recent scholarship indicates that the work was mostly written in 1788, set aside while the composer concentrated on other projects, then hastily completed when the opportunity to perform a new concerto arose.  Ohlsson’s performance hit every musical point with grace, beauty, just the right touch of emotion, and, well, musicality.  Particularly impressive was his treatment of ornaments and trills – each placed right where they needed to be.  Welser-Möst and the orchestra provided the ideal accompaniment, with secondary lines in perfect proportion to primary ones – audible, but not obtrusive.  Ohlsson responded to the enthusiastic ovation with an encore: Chopin’s Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op. 64, No. 2 – in a performance replete with washes of color and inner-voices reminiscent of the old-school of Horowitz and Cherkassky. 

A musical mentor from when I was in my 20s used to opine that the “three Bs” of Classical music were not Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms – but Bach, Beethoven, and Bruckner.  Another acquaintance used to describe Brucker’s Symphonies as “nothing but Germanic burping and farting.”  I disagree with both of those sentiments, though I do find some of Bruckner’s works a bit long-winded.  Of his Symphonies, the two most congenial to me are the Fourth and the Seventh.  This concert featured the Fourth (in the 1878-1880 version), which the orchestra will repeat near the composer’s birthplace in Austria in September for Bruckner’s bicentennial.  Welser-Möst’s approach to Bruckner is similar to his way with Beethoven and Brahms: tempos on the slightly brisk side, with an emphasis on proportion between movements and sub-movements.  Despite the repetitiveness within this symphony (almost like proto-minimalism), things never seemed to drag.  As for the orchestra’s playing, it was simply spectacular – particularly the brass section.  I found myself enjoying the work, but my opinion on Brucker’s oeuvre remains much the same: skillfully orchestrated blocks of tone, inhabiting their own sound-world – with very little actual composing or development taking place.  If Brucker were a 20^th Century composer, he would have found his niche in film music.

It's safe to say I heard more music in that five-minute Chopin Waltz than in the 70 minute Bruckner symphony.