Cleveland Orchestra @ Severance Hall 2/23 There are rules that govern the composition and performance of music. Otherwise, it might all turn into chaos. But yet, every now and then, a piece emerges in which most of the rules are ignored, and yet the piece works magnificently. Such is the case with the Dmitri Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1, Opus 107. Dating from one of the composer’s darkest periods—1959—it doesn’t exactly follow the concerto style—an entire movement that is an unaccompanied cadenza?—and brief sections where the orchestra outweighs the sometimes delicate sound of the soloist. There are episodes of wit and sarcasm, but yet the overall effect is sadness. Tears are not an uncommon response to this work, when it is performed as tenderly and brilliantly as it was by the Austrian cellist Clemens Hagen last week at Severance Hall.

Outwardly, he seemed almost emotionless, letting the music have the spotlight. It was an extremely impressive performance. Guest Conductor Osmo Vänskä was a very aware collaborator, as he led the Cleveland Orchestra in a program of Russian and British music. Several of the orchestra members distinguished themselves in exposed solos throughout: associate principal horn Michael Mayhew, was both lyrical and heroic, as required, while Jonathan Sherwin’s contrabassoon growled most convincingly through its normal subterranean depths.

Mr. Hagen plays a 1698 Stradivari cello which has a beautiful, sweet sound in the upper registers, but is robust sounding in the lower strings. Variously, he produced haunting or mournful or eerie notes; all of them were beautiful.

Benjamin Britten pulled four segments from his 1945 opera Peter Grimes and made a concert suite of them. All four pieces describe the sea at various times: Dawn, Sunday Morning, Moonlight and Storm. Mr. Vänskä is no stranger to this music, but at Thursday evening’s concert, the sea was rather rough. He began with no baton, and after several somewhat tenuous entrances in the first segment, he took up the baton thereafter, and the situation improved markedly. The final Storm was indeed picturesque—with both Peter and the sea tortured and frenetic.

Mr. Vänskä stated during the pre-concert talk that he likes to conduct ‘minorities—music that is not so often done’ but he had to be talked into the final work on the program, the Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 of Sergei Rachmaninoff. He thought it would be very sentimental and Hollywood-ish. “I was wrong,” he admitted with a big grin. “It’s very honest music.” He went on to stress that all three works on the program had been composed within a twenty-five year period, from 1935 to 1959, but yet they are three different faces of music.

To be sure, the Rachmaninoff is a lush, romantic work, but the composer would surely have been pleased by this performance. The first movement contained long, sweeping lines of broad sonorities which kept the active and physical Mr. Vänskä dancing on the podium. The second movement featured various orchestra members in solo turns: Mr. Mayhew (in a mellow mode this time); Ellen dePasquale, associate concertmaster, Marisela Sager, assistant principal flute and Linnea Nereim, bass clarinet—all displayed exceptional skill and beauty of sound.

The Cleveland Orchestra returns on March 9. The Vienna Philharmonic returns for one concert on March 8. For tickets or other information about these or other upcoming concerts, call (216) 231-1111, or visit the orchestra’s web-site: http://www.ClevelandOrchestra.com

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz hidden-email:negfjevgre@nqrycuvn.arg? (:divend:)