Mozart and Beethoven with Ax and Blomstedt

 

The outside of Severance Hall was lit red for Valentine’s Day and the auditorium very well filled for last night’s concert with The Cleveland Orchestra and guest conductor Herbert Blomstedt and pianist Emanuel Ax.  Blomstedt, now 95, is no longer the sprightly figure he was just a few years ago and held onto Ax’s arm as he slowly walked on stage.

The opening work was Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat major K. 456, thought by some to have been written for his friend Maria Theresia von Paradis.  Ax brought his usual polish along with keenly sensitive treatment of the lower levels of dynamics. Playing soft, softer, softest is among the most difficult challenges for even the greatest pianists (there are numerous well-known pianists who never mastered it).  The soloist was perfectly matched in dynamics and interpretation by the orchestra and Blomstedt.  The near capacity audience was so enthused that applause was heard after the opening movement, with a sustained ovation following the finale.  Ax played an encore, Chopin’s Nocturne in F minor, Op. 55, No. 1, given in an unfussy manner.

Following intermission, Blomstedt was assisted onto the stage by First Associate Concertmaster Peter Otto, and sat on a piano bench placed on the conductor’s rostrum.  Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is one of my five favorite works in that genre (the others being Mozart 41, Schubert 9, Brahms 4, and Rachmaninoff 2).  Blomstedt’s interpretation included all the repeats, which were most welcome.  The performance overall was noteworthy for balance between the sections, natural phrasing, and sensible tempos.  Everything was heard in proportion as it should be in Beethoven’s most perfectly structured symphony.  The second movement unfolded with logical inevitability.  The Scherzo featured a Trio that was, for a change, not turned into an Adagio but rather played “much less fast” as Beethoven indicated.  The finale was a marvel of controlled dynamism, given at a tempo brimming with life but not at warp speed.  The audience leapt to its collective feet and gave a prolonged and richly deserved ovation.  Blomstedt may be slowing down physically, but he has lost nothing in musicality, interpretive power, or the ability to project his ideas through the orchestra to the audience.

Four Days in Palm Springs

 

Daniel recently surprised me by announcing he’d accrued far more paid time off than he originally thought.  A fringe benefit of this is that we’re planning to travel more extensively in the coming year than we’d previously envisioned.  In late 2021 we abandoned tentative plans to visit Palm Springs (PS) in favor of more economical destinations.  Although one such trip was beneficial in its own way, we kept PS on the back burner as a future option.  We were able to revive those plans late last year and set the ball in motion to visit PS and get away from the Cleveland winter. 

This was Daniel’s first visit to Palm Springs and my second – the first having been with my stepmother’s parents when I was about 14 years old and too young to really appreciate it. 

Palm Springs (by which I mean, of course, the location in California, not Florida) is known these days as a popular LGBTQ+ travel destination, ranking alongside Puerto Vallarta and San Francisco.  But there is much that anyone can appreciate here: nature, architecture, art.  We decided early on to avoid some of the more decadent guest houses and instead chose the local Hyatt hotel – conveniently located downtown and within walking distance of countless restaurants and vibrant nightlife: gay, straight, and mixed. 

The first day of our trip was a comedy of errors as, just a mile into our drive, we found ourselves with a flat tire.  Instead of changing it in the pouring rain, we headed back home to the thumpa-thumpa accompaniment of said tire.  Daniel then switched our luggage from one car to the other as I grabbed the other car key and we restarted our journey to the airport.  The flight to Palm Springs was uneventful, including a layover in San Francisco where I spotted a United Airlines plane with retro livery.  Once landed at Palm Springs’ charming airport, we found ourselves at the back of a long line at the Budget Rental Car stand.  All told we waited two hours, which did afford us some amusing conversations and commiserations with fellow standees but was highly annoying.  Eventually we got our car and, as we turned from the airport onto East Tahquitz Canyon Way, we encountered a breathtaking view of the San Jacinto Mountains which made the entire hassle of getting there worth it.  We arrived at the hotel just an hour before North Palm Canyon Drive was set to be closed to traffic for the weekly Village Fest.  After settling in, we got the lay of the land as we walked among the vendors and found a Mexican restaurant where we laughed over the mishaps of the day.  We were in Palm Springs where the weather was dry and mild, the moment was all that mattered.  After a dinner that was too generous to allow for dessert, we walked to East Arenas Road, home to several gay clubs including Quadz, Streetbar, and Hunters.  Most of these clubs are pretty much the same: video screens accompanied by loud music that reminded me of the thumpa-thumpa of our flat tire, amplified.  Indeed, of the several gay clubs we visited during our trip, none had the relaxed type of ambience that Garbo’s piano bar in Puerto Vallarta had.  This is a niche waiting to be filled in PS, unless such a place exists and we missed it.  By the time we’d finished our first drink, jet lag was taking effect, so we made an early night of it.  Both that day and for the rest of the trip, Daniel and I were struck by the easy-going charm and politeness of nearly everyone we encountered there.  Never did we once sense that we were being rushed in favor of the next customer. 

Spotted at SFO: 

United Airlines vintage Friend Ship livery

Jet-lag catches up with me in Palm Springs.

View from our hotel room.

We awakened Friday morning and were treated to a lovely view of San Jacinto from our balcony.  If selecting this particular hotel, we recommend opting for a mountain view room, as Palm Canyon Drive is active and loud into the wee hours.  That morning brought us one of the highlights of our trip as we drove up the steep hill leading to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.  The Valley Station had some interesting exhibits on the construction and history of the Tramway, but nothing compared to the 10-minute tram ride itself where, despite multiple ear pops, we enjoyed a breathtaking ride over Chino Canyon to the Mountain Station.  From there, we took in spectacular views of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley before lunch at Peaks Restaurant, followed by a descent, accompanied by more ear pops. 

View from Mountain Station

Saturday morning was set aside for shopping, first at the Desert Hills Premium Outlets and then the nearby Cabazon Outlets.  Then we returned to PS and took a driving tour of the Movie Colony and Warm Sands neighborhoods, populated by gorgeous but not overwhelming mid-Century modern homes, one of my favorite styles.  To commemorate the 114^th anniversary of my grandmother’s birth, Daniel and I headed to Lulu’s and drank a toast in her honor with her favorite drink: a Vodka Martini with olives - interspersed with dinner and people watching.  We took it easy the rest of the night, saving our strength for Sunday’s adventure.

A fairly early breakfast at Pinocchio’s was enough to prepare us for a morning hike in Palm Canyon, Native land run by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.  As we hiked the canyons and crossed over streams, I felt an intangible sense of something beyond the physical.  It was a special moment and we determined to make it part of our future trips to Palm Springs, which we hope won’t be too far off.  After the hike we did a bit of bar hopping before heading back to downtown PS and to Tommy Bahama’s restaurant and store for dinner and a pair of matching shirts.  Neither Daniel nor I are football fans, so we ignored the shouts and groans as patrons watched the Super Bowl.  By then we were pretty tuckered out and ready to start preparing for the journey home. 

 

Solitude...

A hike without sweat is not a hike.

Daniel is none the worse for wear.

We awakened early Monday and headed to the nearby Starbucks Reserve.  On the way back, we learned a fire alarm at our hotel had gone off, but there was no fire.  Our return home, connecting through DFW, was uneventful save for spotting a plane with vintage American Airlines livery and a British Airways A380 – the first of that model I’d ever seen “in the flesh.” 

Fire truck in front of our hotel

American Airlines in vintage livery - 

preferable to today's version.

British Airways A380 

Walter Gieseking's complete Warner recordings

 Warner Classics, the successor company to Angel/EMI, has released their complete Walter Gieseking holdings on 48 CDs.  Click here to read my review.

Norman, Debussy, Ravel, and a last-minute substitution at Severance

As last night’s concert at Severance Hall was about to begin, Cleveland Orchestra manager André Gremillet walked onstage and announced that guest conductor Klaus Mäkelä was unable to conduct due to illness and that Assistant Conductor Daniel Reith would substitute.  Though there were murmurs of disappointment from the audience Reith was warmly greeted when he strode onstage to begin the concert. 

Reith’s steady command of the orchestra and music was firmly established in the opening bars of Andrew Norman’s 2018 composition Sustain, receiving its Cleveland premiere this weekend.  The work began slowly, with high, descending slow notes from the strings, joined by the brass, giving me the impression of slowly walking in a dark room while passing through suspended veils.  Then the piece gained momentum and descended into what another patron called “pots and pans” music.  I couldn’t entirely disagree with her remark.  Yet there were numerous unique sonorities to be heard, not least from two pianos, tuned a quarter-tone apart, and Sustain bears further listening. 

 Unfortunately, my concentration was disrupted: first by a man behind the audience speaking quite audibly; then, by a woman’s personal alarm sounding and continuing as she left the auditorium.  The concert was filmed for future streaming on the Adella app, but I suspect Sustain will have to be left out or patched due to the off-stage noises.  One characteristic of the main auditorium at Severance is that the faintest sounds carry to all parts within the hall.

Unfortunately, at least one person's

electronic device was not silenced.

Following intermission, the concert continued with a complete performance of Debussy’s Images.  It seems odd to note that the orchestra didn’t present the complete work, completed in 1912, until 1951 when Pierre Monteux led it here.  Debussy’s music has become generally popular, yet of the work, only the Iberia portion is frequently performed.   Gigues opened with a sense of mystery as the high-notes in the winds sounded and the strings insinuated themselves, then the piece picked up tempo as it quoted the then-popular tune Let’s Dance the Jig by Charles Bordes.  From England, we were transported to Spain for the work’s second part – in three sections.  Here, Reith demonstrated his master of orchestra balance, particularly in The Fragrances of the Night, but the final Spanish part, The Morning of a Festival Day, lacked the vibrancy usually heard in this work.  But the rousing nature of the piece brought a burst of spontaneous applause from the audience (no doubt, some applauders thought the work was over).  After things settled down, the orchestra continued with the work’s conclusion, Spring Rounds.  

In some ways Ravel’s ever popular Boléro is like an extended, slow-motion Rossini crescendo: to be properly brought off, the tempo has to be strictly maintained and the orchestra sections perfectly balanced as they increase in volume.  Reith established a slow tempo in Boléro’s opening bars, very much like that heard on Ravel’s own 1930 recording.  Each repetition of the binary theme brought a bit more volume and excitement until, as the piece suddenly switched from C major to E major, I noticed an expression of joyful surprise on a young person’s face.  Naturally the work's conclusion brought down the house.

Whether because Bolero was on the program or people feeling more comfortable with attending live events, the hall was filled to at least 80% capacity, the most I’ve seen since before the pandemic began – three long years ago.