Cleveland Orchestra @ Severance Hall 12/4 Mitsuko + Mozart might as well be carved inside a heart on one of Severance Halls' marble columns. On Thursday The Cleveland Orchestra and Mitsuko Uchida collaborated in a glorious repeat of two Mozart piano concertos played in 2005. The sprightly Concerto in A major, K488 (No. 23) and the dramatic Concerto in C minor, K 491 brought listeners the joy we've come to expect whenever Uchida walks onto the stage. Conducting from the piano, she allowed herself to be a transparent conduit (it seemed) of Mozart's genius. It wasn't all about her as piano diva; it was all about the music.

The A major, sparkled, lyric, full of light and air; the C minor brought drama--it's a staggeringly complex, dark, and yet poignant evocation of the dance of life. One funny note: knowing the performance was being taped made the audience hold coughs until the pauses between movements--at which time the suppressed coughs gave the impression we were in a hospital ward.

But that didn't matter to anyone and Uchida received a richly deserved standing ovation after both pieces. She loves Mozart's music and it, it seems, loves her back. The concert opened with a respectful transcription of Franz Liszt's "The Black Gondola" arranged for orchestra by John Adams. Adams' instrumentation did little to evoke the genesis of the piece (Wagner's impending death), but it did show how devilishly clever and agile the musicians of the orchestra can be when wringing expression out of even the briefest (10 minute) piece.

Next up (aside from the Christmas concert series) is Franz Welser-Most's return with Wagner and Shostakovich on Jan. 8-10, 2009.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Laura Kennelly lkennellyATgmail.com

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