The last-minute substitution of the scheduled guest
conductor didn’t impair the performance at Severance over this past weekend, as
the orchestra delivered performances even more refined than usual. The guest conductor was Kahchun Wong, who
hails from Singapore, making his Cleveland Orchestra debut.
The shortish program began with Beethoven’s
Violin Concerto, featuring Christian Tetzlaff as soloist. The performance was marked by pronounced
flexibility of tempo along with uncanny balancing between soloist and conductor,
featuring pianissimos that the composer would not have been able to hear. Tetzlaff’s solution was elegant yet
inventive: He arranged Beethoven’s own cadenza from his piano arrangement of the
Violin Concerto (created at the request of Muzio Clementi) for violin - with
timpani accompaniment as written by Beethoven. A sustained ovation followed the performance
and the audience was gifted with an encore, the slow movement from J. S. Bach’s
Sonata in A minor.
Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion,
and Celesta followed the intermission. The conductor, whose visual style was a mix of
theatricality and subtle details, paid particular attention to dynamics with
numerous felicities unheard on even the finest recordings. The punching rhythm of the second movement
Allegro remained in the ears, and feet, following the concert.
