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Cleveland Orchestra @ Severance Hall 2/12 In the annals of "how to put together a symphony orchestra program," the standard recipe is overture, concerto (intermission), symphony. In today's multi-media age, a DVD of this Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall program should serve nicely as the "and here's how to do it!" part of the lesson. It really doesn't get much better than this one. Until next time, of course. It seems as though in this new year of 2009, each week's concert is more stupendous than the one previous. Or at least equal to.

Pinchas Steinberg is a welcome guest conductor, and deservedly so. He and the orchestra always seem to indulge in a mutual admiration effect, drawing the audience right in with them. Add in a dashing soloist and three standards of the repertory, and what’s not to like? It seemed perfectly reasonable that at the end of the concerto, the soloist and the conductor faced the orchestra, applauding the musicians, who were applauding them, while the audience was busily applauding (and cheering and whistling!) everyone on stage. It was a heart-warming episode.

Nikolaj Znaider was the soloist in the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op. 77 by Johannes Brahms. One may hear this work performed with great regularity in the concert halls of the world, but will seldom hear a better performance than the one we heard on Thursday evening. Mr. Znaider plays with all the confidence in the world—not one note of this huge concerto gave him any trouble whatsoever. His violin—a 1741 Guarneri del Gesù—sounded sturdy and lush from one end of the scale to the other, and regardless of dynamics. Mr. Steinberg was an enthusiastic and attentive collaborator, helping to bring this marvelous music to full-bodied life.

I thought it particularly charming that Mr. Znaider, after wiping his own face with his handkerchief during pauses in the music, would then carefully wipe the face of his violin. It’s quite obvious that such loving treatment provides great rewards!

Opening the program was a 20th century work by the American composer, Samuel Barber. Barely out of his teens when he composed the Overture to the School for Scandal, he never did write the rest of the opera, although he did write others later in his life. This work sparkles with effervescence and gorgeous melodies, one tumbling after the other, almost too quickly to be absorbed by the listener. Jeffrey Rathbun’s oboe solo at the beginning was limpidly beautiful, while Trina Struble’s lush harp arpeggios added an extra dimension.

Nearly everthing Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote turned into great audience-pleasers, and few more so than his last three symphonies. The Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36, from its first audacious brass fanfare through the delicacy of the second movement and interesting plucked strings of the third, to the vibrant, exhuberant conclusion is no exception. Along the way, there were excellently-played solos: the delicate and deliberate pacing on the tympani by Paul Yancich, while Frank Rosenwein’s oboe and John Clouser’s bassoon melodies hovered languidly over the plucked strings in the andantino.

In the words of Dan Gilbert, owner of the other winning team in the area (at the moment), it was “fantacular, extraordulous and phenomerful." I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Next week, the orchestra hosts another violinist—Gil Shaham—and guest conductor—Kiril Petrenko—in more Tchaikovsky, plus Stravinsky and Dvorák. For tickets or other information, call 231-1111 or visit the web-site at: http://www.clevelandorchestra.com.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz artswriterATroadrunner.com
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