Guest conductor Daniele Rustioni led this weekend’s Cleveland Orchestra concerts in a program of mostly French music.
The concert began with Gabriel Fauré’s Suite
from Pelléas et Mélisande. The
opening Prélude unfolded with pastoral serenity, while the following Entr’acte
benefitted from feather-light playing by the orchestra’s strings. The most well-known movement, Sicilienne -
used for years as the opening to our local Classical station’s late-night program
– featured a gorgeous flute solo.
The next work was one of my favorite non-piano
concertos, Poulenc’s Concerto for
Organ, Strings, and Timpani, featuring soloist Paul Jacobs, a regular
visitor here. This performance was
more than the evening’s highlight, it was simply the finest performance of this
work I’ve ever heard – either in concert or on recordings. Jacobs and Rustioni gave this concerto, which
too often sounds sectionalized, a dramatic through-line which clarified the
work’s structure without sacrificing the piece’s elan. It was a performance which balanced the
conflicting sides of Poulenc’s personality: his religious rectitude and his secular
sensuality. To say the performance was
well received is an understatement. In response
to the sustained ovation, Jacobs made his way back to the organ, sat down, turned
to face the audience, and asked “Do you like Bach?” Some affirming applause led to an encore by
J. S. Bach, but I couldn’t name the specific work.
I wish I could say the rest of the concert was
on the same level but, alas, that was not the case. Following intermission Rustioni returned to
lead the orchestra in Italia by Alfredo Casella. The work, from 1909, is a skillfully
orchestrated patriotic pastiche of popular Italian tunes, including “Funiculi,
Funiculà.” On the ride home, Daniel
commented that the opening sounded like film music to him, and I’d had the
exact same thought – specifically the more bombastic work of Max Steiner. The conductor and orchestra clearly enjoyed delivering
this rarely heard piece, and the audience enjoyed hearing it. I didn’t mind hearing it either – once.
The final work on the program was Debussy’s La Mer. Well played as it was, this performance was
missing what the Poulenc concerto had in abundance – a unified conception. Instead, it was a series of episodes and
garish colors. Rustioni’s micromanaging
of parts of the score (which the orchestra plays with some regularity and could
probably perform in their sleep) was as unnecessary as the vocalizing he was
heard offering several times tonight. I
generally don’t get caught up in conductor’s platform manners, but it was
appropriate that his concert took place on Easter weekend, because Rustioni
hopped around on the platform like a bunny rabbit.
