The Cleveland Orchestra presented the first of three 2024 Summers at Severance concerts with guest conductor Oksana Lyniv and pianist Inon Barnatan last night.
Our new dog, Brownie was neutered and microchipped yesterday. Dan & I brought him home to recover – during which he has to be supervised and must wear the dreaded “cone of shame.” Daniel had to work early this morning, so I was only able to attend the first half of the concert.
The concert began just a few minutes after 7:00pm with selections from Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. The Cleveland Orchestra presented the full opera, inventively staged, in 2014. It was so well received that it was revived three years later. Conductor Sir Charles Mackerras compiled selections from Act I into an orchestral suite, and the music holds up well sans singers and staging. Lyniv obtained exceptionally clear playing from the strings and the performance as a whole was well paced. The audience, which was rather noisy at first, settled down within a few minutes (except for two people who annoyingly perused their cell phones) and the music was well received.
This was followed by Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which was mostly competently played by Bartanan. There was little of the elegance heard on the composer’s own recording, nor any of the jazzy sizzle one heard from William Kapell. The main standout from this performance was from within the orchestra, with string pizzicatos played with uncommon clarity and the brass parts brought off with panache.
After returning home, I settled down for a quiet evening with Brownie, as we both slept on the family room floor. He’s slowly learning to navigate stairs while wearing his cone and patiently taking his post-surgery medications. He’s a good boy.
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