After leading the Cleveland Orchestra on its European tour, music director Franz Welser-Möst – who was treated within the last year for cancer – opted out of the first three weeks of concerts at Severance Hall. We wish him a speedy return to full vigor.
This was
the first concert of the 2024-2025 season that Daniel and I attended. Over the past year, I’ve noticed an increasing noise problem coming from
the back of the main floor. As we’ve customarily gotten seats in Row W –
the last – the problem has been quite distracting. So, I decided to experiment and this time we
were seated in Row N on the left aisle.
Elim Chan was called on to substitute for Welser-Möst, and the opening half of the program featured pianist Yefim Bronfman in Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto in D minor, Op. 30. Bronfman has long been a friend of the orchestra. That this concerto requires technique to burn is well known, what is less grasped it that it also requires musicality. Yes, Virginia, it takes just as much musical understanding to convincingly perform Rachmaninoff as it does with Brahms – it’s just a different kind of musicality. Bronfman’s performance was similar in spirit to Rachmaninoff’s own: a dramatic through-line ran through the whole piece. He offered the work intact – without the disfiguring cuts that Rachmaninoff, in a fit of insecurity, endorsed for several of his larger works, including the Second Symphony and Second Sonata. Bronfman chose the larger of the two cadenzas in the opening movement, and though I prefer the shorter cadenza (as did the composer), one can only state that whoever can play this concerto so masterfully should feel free to play whichever cadenza he chooses. Chan and the orchestra provided an accompaniment which was attentive to the composer’s dynamic markings and well-balanced with Bronfman’s titanic style. The hall, which seemed half-full of pianists (many of whom moved their fingers in time with the soloist, leapt to its feet at the concerto's rousing conclusion.
Following
intermission, Chan replaced the originally programmed Petrushka ballet score by
Stravinsky with Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 – his last completed major work. This may seem like an incongruous change from
the Stravinsky, but Rachmaninoff originally conceived the work as a ballet
suite. Here Chan, who conducts sans
baton, really shone. Tempi were
unusually flexible without becoming chaotic.
The second movement, which sounds as if it depicts a haunted ballroom
dance, featured some daring ritardandi, which allowed Rachmaninoff’s lingering
melodies to unfold with tantalizing succulence.
The final movement, where some of the composer’s string figurations are
frankly erotic, was appropriately sensual without becoming vulgar. Individual highlights from this evening’s
performance were gorgeous violin, saxophone, and clarinet solos, along with
riveting percussion work throughout – capped off by the final tam-tam blow. Chen singled them out during the sustained
and enthusiastic ovation that followed.
Both performances
were simply the finest I’ve ever heard of these works in concert. What more need I say? Only that from our seats in Row N, the sound
was a bit less blended, with strings a bit more prominent than we were used to
hearing. We’re going to be experimenting
with various places in the hall over the next few months, so it remains to be
seen (or heard) where our niche will reside.
