Saturday night’s concert at Severance, featuring guest conductor and composer George Benjamin, yielded consistently strong performances of music that varied widely in quality.
The concert
began with a proverbial bang in Dieter Ammann’s glut. This is one of those pieces that takes the “everything
but the kitchen sink” approach to orchestration, with the stage crowded by every conceivable instrument, especially percussion. As for the quality of the work itself, it was
a collection of gimmicks in search of an idea.
There were plenty of sonorities to be heard, but little in the way of
actual composition. My concert companion remarked that it sounded like "cartoon music on Crack."
The second
work was Benjamin’s own Dream of the Song, where the orchestra was
joined by countertenor Tim Mead and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. The work, consisting of six songs set to
texts by various authors, contains moments of searing lyricism. Mead was more than up to the task of both navigating
some treacherously high notes and providing emotional heft.
Both works
on the first half of the program were local premieres.
Following
intermission, Benjamin led the orchestra in Oliver Knussen’s The
Way to Castle Yonder, a suite of orchestral interludes from his opera Higglety
Pigglety Pop!. Knussen, who died in 2018, was no stranger to Cleveland, and
led the local premiere of this work in 1993.
Here, orchestral color was mixed with a sense of dramatic through-line,
and the complex orchestration served to highlight the work’s themes.
The final
work, Ravel’s
Ma mère l’oye, was likely the main draw – although it’s far from a
classical top-40 hit like his Bolero. The
performance was resplendent with color and texture, more clarity than one
usually hears in this work – and a dash of poetry. It also provided a chance for me to observe Benjamin’s
economical, unobtrusive conducting technique – not a movement was wasted, and
every gesture was for the benefit of the orchestra, not the audience.
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