The Cleveland Orchestra’s concert at Blossom Music Center last night was a typical mix of the familiar, less familiar, and unfamiliar, performed with stylistic sureness and nimble virtuosity. This was Dan and my first concert at Blossom since the pandemic began, and it was nice to be back – especially on such a lovely evening when the weather was cooperative.
Guest conductor
Ruth Reinhardt, making her Cleveland Orchestra debut, led the orchestra in a bracing
performance of Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz’s Overture (otherwise unnamed),
an optimistic piece that belied the fact it was written during the Nazi
occupation of Warsaw in 1943. This work,
new to me and never before played in Cleveland, deserves to be heard more often
– and I’ve no doubt there are other works by this composer that are worth the listener’s
time.
Violinist Alexi Kenney then took to the stage for Mendelssohn’s justly popular Violin Concerto. Kenney, also making his Cleveland Orchestra debut, and Reinhardt made the well-known Concerto sound new and fresh. Kenney’s suave, feathery light intonation, seemingly effortless rapid passagework, and the palpable joy he brought to the performance were a marvel to behold. The conductor matched the soloist’s metric flexibility and rubato move-for-move. All the more remarkable was that Kenney was a last-minute substitute for Sergey Khachatryan who was unable to appear due to visa issues. Yet there was nothing last-minute in the well thought out, yet spontaneous performance. An encore followed the prolonged ovation.
Reinhardt
returned following intermission to lead the orchestra in Dvořák’s Symphony No.
5 in F major. Although I’ve heard all of
Dvořák’s Symphonies, I only really know 6-9.
The 5th shares the spirit of Beethoven’s 6th which
is in the same key. But, despite many
beautiful passages, it is not as memorable as either Beethoven’s Pastoral nor Dvořák’s
last four Symphonies. Nevertheless the orchestra’s
nimble, lyrical performance was enjoyable.
