Autumnal Prokofiev and Brahms at Severance

The weather in northeast Ohio segued from Summer to Fall this week, and it’s appropriate that The Cleveland Orchestra presented a program which was autumnal in both repertoire and performance.

 The concert began with Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 – his last work in the genre.  By the time he began work on this Symphony, Prokofiev was a defeated man – denounced as a “formalist” by Soviet musical apparatchiks in 1948, suffering a stroke in 1949, largely withdrawn from public life.  The symphony is permeated by a reflective mood, perhaps nostalgic for an earlier, less repressive era.  Shortly before the work’s premiere, colleagues persuaded Prokofiev to add a cheerful and energetic coda.  But Prokofiev told a colleague that he preferred the original restrained ending.  Franz Welser-Möst and the orchestra honored the composer’s intentions this weekend not just with the ending, but the entire performance, which was suffused with a sense of farewell.  Each movement was perfectly paced and immaculately played – even though this work is hardly a repertoire staple.  The premiere of this work in 1952 marked Prokofiev’s final appearance in public.  In a bitter irony, he died on the same day as Joseph Stalin.

Following intermission, pianist Daniil Trifonov took to the stage to join Welser-Möst and the orchestra in Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83.  Unlike the Prokofiev Symphony, this work is a repertoire staple.  In fact, Welser-Möst led the orchestra in the piece with soloist Igor Levit back in 2022.  It says something about the conductor’s skill as an accompanist that he can lead two highly disparate interpretations of the same work.  Where Levit’s performance was briskly impulsive, Trifonov’s was ruminative.  Tempi in the first two movements were among the most flexible this listener has ever heard in this work.  There were moments during the scherzo’s trio where Trifonov nearly brought the proceedings to a halt.  The third movement, marked Andante, was more of an Adagio – yet in its way Trifonov’s approach worked.  He was helped by Principal cellist Mark Kosower’s solo which was luminously gorgeous.  Perhaps in contrast with the third movement, the last movement was unusually swift and whimsical.  Despite there being more empty seats than one would expect with a popular guest soloist performing a well-known concerto, the performance was received with a loud ovation.  Trifonov played the briefest of encores, Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitive, Op.22, No. 10 (marked Ridicolosamente).  A pointed contrast to the weighty Brahms Concerto.