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Cleveland Orchestra @ Severance Hall 4/30 If last week’s concert with Sir Colin Davis and Mitsuko Uchida was like a gala banquet (and it was) then this week’s concert conducted by Jahja Ling was like a 4th of July picnic--a little casual with fireworks at the end. To start with the fireworks: The Orchestra closed the concert with that bright snappy attack of wit, Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. Dan McKelway's snarky and screamingly high clarinet comments plus good musical fun as each section took the theme showed why orchestras continue to program this piece. Maybe it was just because Thursday night was the first of four scheduled performances, but the Orchestra fared less well under Ling’s direction of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 [Scottish]. The colors seemed muted and the opening attacks didn’t sound as if everyone came in together. The new piece for the evening by Paul Chihara, a work for solo viola and orchestra, was written for Cleveland Orchestra violist Robert Vernon. “When Soft Voices Die” sounded like movie music (Chihara writes film scores), but then, I like movie music. It’s hard to know on just one hearing whether or not a piece will have staying power, but the piece held new age melodies that fell pleasantly on the ear and soloist Vernon seemed perfectly at ease with the work.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Laura Kennelly lkennellyATgmail.com
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