Milhaud, Gershwin, and Stravinsky at Severance

Music of the 20^th Century was featured at tonight’s Cleveland Orchestra concert, led by guest conductor Klaus Mäkelä with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

The concert began with Darius Milhaud’s Le Bœuf sur le toit (The Ox on the Roof), Op. 58, a set of orchestra pieces based on Brazilian tunes the composer heard when he visited that country in 1917-1919, and later used by Jean Cocteau as a ballet score.  I fell under the charms of the bracingly intoxicating rhythms of Brazil while in a relationship with a Brazilian 30 years ago, who taught me some of the country’s dances.  Mäkelä brought a wonderful sense of elasticity to the raucously congenial work. 

Thibaudet, replacing Yuja Wang, who withdrew from the concert several weeks ago, was the soloist in Gershwin’s Concerto in F.  Thibaudet is a pianist’s pianist – he can seemingly do anything with the instrument.  I’ve never heard the solo part of this work played with such technical finish, refinement, or musicality – details of the work were given the kind of lavish treatment usually accorded to more “legitimate” classical masterpieces.  This raises the question of how to define Gershwin’s oeuvre: Is it Jazz, Classical, or semi-classical (whatever that means)?  It is music suited to the concert hall, and it is good music which has stood the test of time – almost a century’s worth in the case of this concerto.  Mäkelä and the orchestra provided a vigorous accompaniment which, during the louder parts, all but drowned out the pianist.  From my seat at the back of the main floor, there were also some problems with balance within the orchestra – which is not something often encountered at Severance.   

 

Thibaudet following the concerto

Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which touched off a riot at its premiere in 1913, has become standard repertoire for most professional orchestras.  Indeed, Stravinsky is the only composer whose complete ballets – as opposed to suites – are routinely played sans dancers and in concert halls today.  Mäkelä, who favors the big gesture (both visual and auditory) over the refined musical point, was made for this piece.  Tempi were on the swift side and details of balance and nuance were swept away in favor of big, bold sonorities and splashes of orchestral color – never less than vibrant, sometimes brutal.  Refinement was abandoned and there was even a miscued bassoon during the latter part of the work.  It was a rock ‘em, sock ‘em orchestral spectacular which brought the audience to its collective feet.