Revueltas and Dvořák with Stasevska at Severance

The Cleveland Orchestra continued its contemporary practice of commingling the familiar with the unfamiliar in this weekend’s concerts with guest conductor Dalia Stasevska at Severance Hall.

Silvestre Revueltas’s La Noche de los Mayas was originally created as the score for the 1939 film of the same name, with which I am not familiar.  20 years later, José Yves Limantour arranged the music into a four-movement suite in a manner which structurally resembles a symphony.  The orchestration is highly eclectic; in addition to the usual instruments are the Indian drum, congas, bongos, güiro, metal rattle, and conch shell.  The work opens with a longing theme in A minor before moving into a Scherzo movement that features exhilarating cross rhythms.  From there a romantic andante, titled Night of Yucatán, leads directly into the finale - an extroverted theme and variations which includes shouts from the percussionists.  This is a highly interesting work that is new to me, and I’m looking forward to hearing it again on the orchestra’s Adella app.  The audience response was highly enthusiastic. 

Antonín Dvořák’s best known work is undoubtedly his Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 - titled “From the New World.”  The story of this work’s creation scarcely needs repeating: the composer, originally from what today is known as the Czech Republic, spent three years in the United States, during which he studied African-American and Native music.  The Symphony is one of several compositions from that era and has been a repertoire favorite for over a Century.  It can be argued that the Cleveland Orchestra is America’s premier Dvořák ensemble, having recorded his Symphonies from the time Erich Leinsdorf was music director onwards.  One can’t avoid mentioning George Szell, who recorded the complete Slavonic Dances, the Piano Concerto (with soloist Rudolf Firkusny), and the last three Symphonies – all of which are considered reference recordings.  Christoph von Dohnányi also made fine recordings of the Slavonic Dances and the four last Symphonies.  While the origins of several of the work’s themes have been analyzed over the decades, what is not often pointed out is that Dvořák’s last symphony is as well structured as any of its counterparts by Brahms, with a thematic cross referencing that enhances the work’s symphonic unity.  As a result of this, this symphony can withstand a variety of interpretive approaches: from the structurally strict Toscanini to the wayward Stokowski.  Franz Welser-Möst led this work in 2023, offering an interpretation that favored a classical, architectonic approach.  Stasevska’s way with this work was more rhapsodic.  True, she observed the first movement repeat, but the freedom of phrasing and plasticity of tempo, not to mention her attention to dynamics, heightened the opening movement’s sense of adventure.  The Largo movement was unusually broad and meditative, with a beautifully sustained cor anglais solo; and the finale was simply epic.  This was a performance to remember, and the audience held its breath as the final notes faded away.

With music director Franz Welser-Möst’s contract ending in less than two years, every appearance by a guest conductor at Severance takes on the nature of an audition.  This is particularly the case when those guest conductors are not currently under contract, as is the case with Stasevska.  Based on both the performance and the audience response at tonight’s concert, Stasevska is definitely a contender.