Cleveland Orchestra @ Severance Hall, 2/4/10

A French conductor for an all-French program made for an enchanting evening last week at Severance Hall. The Cleveland Orchestra program featured Pierre Boulez conducting “L’Ascension” by Olivier Messiaen, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in D major for the Left Hand (both with piano great Pierre-Laurent Aimard) and Claude Debussy’s “Iberia.”

Boulez is the rare conductor who eschews a baton and uses his arms to suggest and incorporate meaning--it’s subtle, but effective. With Boulez leading, the Messiaen “L’Ascension”--a meditation which stops after an unresolved passage--sounded like a prayer lifted, one with an answer promised, but not given to the living. The Ravels dazzled.

Aimard gracefully navigated the keyboard in the work for one hand (if you shut your eyes, you’d never know it was one hand--but it was fun to look). The G major piano concerto seethed insistently (as in Ravel’s better-known “Bolero”) and luxuriated in the jazzy blues (that George Gershwin made even more famous).

And “Iberia” heated up the chilly hall with light and fireshine. Not to sound like an ad, but it’s possible that this coming week (Feb. 11-13) may be the last chance we’ll get to see Boulez in Cleveland (he celebrates his 85th birthday in March--not that it shows).

'''So, if you can, put on your snow boots and trudge to Severance Hall to celebrate Pierre Boulez and his remarkable music-making in an all Mahler program. http://www.ClevelandOrchestra.com

Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.

Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.