Music Director Franz Welser-Möst returned to the podium last week, and brought with him a brisk and lively program well suited to spring. Opening the program was the above mentioned Symphony of Schubert, which was given a reading that ranged from robust and exuberant in the opening movement Allegro to lively and crisp in the final Allegro vivace. The menuetto of the third movement was light and delicate, emphasizing the gneral amiability of the piece.
Next up was the American premiere of Diptych, by the Orchestra’s new Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow, the London-born Julian Anderson. He was 22 when he composed this two part piece, each part having a separate first performance. Beginning with birdsong and twittering, I rather thought I heard an orchestral sneeze or two, as well. There were atmospheric wanderings up and down the scale, punctuated by a ratchet and whistle. Titled Parades, this portion greatly resembles busy city streets with all the hurly-burly usually associated with traffic, possibly even a traffic jam. Mr. Welser-Möst was a most able traffic cop, keeping things moving briskly.
After a short lyrical interlude, the second half, Pavillons en l'air, was somewhat reminiscent of Rites of Spring, with the earth awakening amidst clangorous sounds from the brass. The four horns turned their bells up, and nonchalantly walked off the stage, although they continued playing in a discordant fashion. There was more twittering before the piece concluded.
Leave it to the master, however, to prove that dissonance can be beautiful. Richard Strauss made the elegant tone poem format his own, and never more so than in his Opus 35, Don Quixote or "Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character," drawn from the work of Miguel Cervantes. Sometimes known as “The Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance,” it tells the tale of Don Quixote, he who tilted at windmills, his chatty servant Sancho Panza, and the beautiful, unobtainable Dulcinea. Of course, by that time Strauss wrote this work, he was a grand old man of 33! The music was indeed fantastic, but hardly sorrowful in the taut, muscular version fashioned by Mr. Welser-Möst.
Three principal string players of the orchestra were soloists: principal cellist Desmond Hoebig as Quixote, violist Robert Vernon as Panza while concertmaster William Preucil provided Dulcinea’s sweet songs. Mr. Hoebig tore into the music as though he really was the Don, protesting his imprisonment. His cello has a gorgeous big sound that could also be delicate when required. His dialogue with the orchestra, his servant or the serving maid, was presented in a fairly straight-forward manner, but with an occasional bit of blather. The expository portions however, allowed Mr. Hoebig to show us the other, softer side of Quixote remembering his sprightly younger days—spouting poetry, falling in love and venturing off here and there to right the wrongs he encountered.
Mr. Vernon’s Panza stayed a bit in the background, as the good servant who knows his place, while yet being nearby for assistance or offering advice or whatever might be needed. Mr. Preucil, playing from his usual place, gave Dulcinea a voice that was sweet or tart as required.
Of course, Strauss wrote beautifully for every instrument in the orchestra, but a few standouts were the biting and sassy horn section—seven in all—plus the tenor tuba of Richard Stout who usually sits in the trombone section; and intriguing musical slides from the contrabassoon of Jonathan Sherwin and tuba player Yasuhito Sugiyama. The strings provided vigorous pizzicato passages.
Asking this orchestra for this kind of performance of spectacular music is absolutely not “The Impossible Dream.”
For tickets or information about upcoming concerts, call (216) 231-1111, or visit the orchestra’s web-site: http://www.ClevelandOrchestra.com
From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz artswriterATadelphia.net (:divend:)