The Cleveland Orchestra @ Blossom Festival, 8/29

Swoosh. Whether or not summer was hotter or cooler this year, it sure seemed shorter. It’s hard to say goodbye to the late summer mix of cicadas and clarinets, birds and violins that fills Blossom Festival Music Center when the Cleveland Orchestra plays in concert.

This late August night Conductor James Gaffigan led the orchestra with the enthusiasm he became known for in his stint as the orchestra’s assistant conductor and director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (2003-2006). Soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet dazzled with his easy demeanor and command of both jazzy and melodic passages in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in D major for the Left Hand.

A person just listening (or nearsighted) might never have realized that Thibaudet played with only one hand. He moved commandingly over the keyboard, playing a near seamless “duet” with the orchestra. A bouncy version of Berlioz’s Overture: Le Corsaire opened the program. Berlioz may not have had Byron’s Corsair in mind, but it was easy to imagine the Romantic poet’s dashing pirate.

In contrast we know that Faure’s Suite from Pelieas and Melisande was directly inspired by a literary work (Maeterlinck’s play about the doomed couple). The orchestra, alternately sweet, spicy, and solemn (our heroine dies), sounded lush (as befits any work graced by significant harp passages). The evening concluded with a trip to the shore courtesy of Debussy’s wave-washed La Mer (“The Sea”).

If summer concerts must end, at least they did so beautifully.

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.

 (:divend:)