Sunday, May 11, 2025

Mozart, Loggins-Hull, and Prokofiev at Severance

The 2024-2025 Cleveland Orchestra season is nearing its end.  Music Director Franz Welser-Möst led the orchestra in a typical program which balanced an established older work with a brand-new piece, and an unfamiliar older work.

The concert began with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550.  Welser-Möst has led several Mozart symphonies over the past 23 years of his tenure here, but this is the first time I’ve heard him in K. 550, a work I know well.  Mozart is quietly revolutionary here: the piece opens not with the “sit up and pay attention” chord that was common with the time, but a quiet and very brief pulsing passage which leads directly to the main theme; in the finale, Mozart introduces a transitional passage which includes 11 of the 12-note chromatic scale, with the note of G (the home key of the work) left out – a technique which is prescient of Arnold Schoenberg.  Welser-Möst used a reduced complement of strings which made it easier for the winds to be heard.  The conductor’s tempi, phrasing, balance, and pacing were just right.  The only thing which detracted from my enjoyment was a small group of audience members who applauded after the first and second movements.  For years, I have considered Mozart’s last Symphony, No. 41 in C major, K. 551, as my favorite by that composer.  But Welser-Möst may have changed my mind and allegiance to K. 550. 

The next work was a new piece receiving its world premiere this weekend: Allison Loggins-Hull’s Grit. Grace. Glory.  This work is optimistic, broadly tonal, and filled with the spirit of, well, Cleveland.  The opening movement, titled Steel, pulsed with dynamic energy.  Shoreline Shadows, the second movement, stepped back a bit and had moments of reflection – I felt as if I was enjoying a tranquil day on the shores of Lake Erie.  The third movement, Quip, was self-deprecatingly playful in the way one often hears in a Haydn menuet or finale.  The finale, Ode, was suffused with the spirit of memories before segueing into a “Rock and Roll” section which concluded the piece.  It’s encouraging to hear music which leaves the audience enthused, as they were here, instead of baffled.

Allison Loggins-Hull acknowledges the ovation after the performance.

The last work on this weekend’s program was the revised version of Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 4, which, interestingly, was included on another program two years ago that also included a premiere of a work by Loggins-Hull.  Welser-Möst’s interpretation of the work appears to have changed a bit: the outer movements were broader last night than in 2023.  The central movements just seemed, well, uninteresting.  My conclusion leaving the concert was the exact opposite as two years ago – aside from the opening movement it’s one of the weakest works of Prokofiev I’ve ever encountered.  This may simply be a reflection of my status last night, as I was tired and recovering an exhausting week that included a recent vaccination.  However, the fact that the work has not crossed my mind over the past two years refutes that supposition.

We’re still deciding whether to attend next week’s concert presentation of Janáček’s opera Jenůfa.

 

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