Review

The Cleveland Orchestra with Emmanuel Ax (May 19)

by Nicholas Jones

Like movies, even orchestra concerts these days get a “tagline.” For the Cleveland Orchestra last weekend, in the program book, the tagline was “Familiar and New.” Except for the very familiar Beethoven’s Eighth at the end of the concert, most of the music was, if not exactly new, at least new to our ears.

Oddly, the oldest piece in the concert, Haydn’s spritely D major Piano Concerto, was in another sense the newest, having not been played by the Clevelanders since Louis Lane conducted it in 1965. Here, with Franz Welser-Möst on the podium, the stunningly collaborative Emanuel Ax at the keyboard, and a radically stripped-down orchestra, the seldom-played concerto clearly captured the audience’s approval. And what is not to like? Dashing and playful, occasionally meditative, a mixture of the galante and the folksy (complete with imitation of a Hungarian hammered dulcimer), the piece demonstrates Haydn’s usual mastery of musical architecture in an unusual (for Haydn) form.

The rapport between conductor and soloist was apparent throughout the concerto , even when there was an initial difference of opinion about the meaning of “un poco adagio.” Ax’s playing appeared effortless even in right-hand passagework that is deceptively difficult. Would that more pianists had the courage to play a cadenza so quietly and with such a delicate pianissimo!

The Haydn was preceded by a much newer piece, John Adams’ energetic and brooding Guide to Strange Places. Written in 2001 and premiered just after the September 11 attacks, this is a formidably fascinating work. Beginning with Adams’ characteristic rhythmic vitality, it soon morphs into slower rhythms, punctuated by ominous percussive swats and fierce sforzandi stabbings in the strings. The tragedy that seems to inhabit the center of this piece catches us unawares—as so often in real life.

Guide is a serious, virtuoso piece demanding intense rhythmic concentration and technical mastery from every player. The intensity of the sounds and the narrative pulse of the piece, as if there were some hidden narrative of heroism or apocalypse behind it, reminded me of the great nineteenth-century symphonic poems in which Liszt and Tchaikovsky worked out the struggles of their day. Welser-Möst was at his best here: energetic and driving even where the length of the piece and repetitive passagework might have bred exhaustion in the players.

After intermission, Ax returned to the keyboard for Stravinsky’s Capriccio for piano and orchestra, a Jazz-Age showpiece for the composer-pianist. This piece of modernist neo-Classicism begins with bombast but soon demonstrates that its real mode is a detached and smiling sparkle. Classical three-movement form, thematic development, and tonal architecture all speak to a sense of ordered wittiness, which the soloist caught perfectly. A small group of solo strings near the keyboard added to the sense of an intimate chamber-music event, as did brilliant interchanges between the piano and a number of the principal wind players. Of particular delight was a series of rapid scale passages in which the piano and the first flute (beautifully played by assistant principal Marisela Sager) chased each other playfully around the gamut.

The concert ended with an old friend, the Eighth Symphony of Beethoven. As always, a few things about the symphony struck me with renewed force: the delicacy of the strings in the pianissimo staccato theme of the second (“metronome”) movement, and the wind ensemble in the third movement Trio (especially, the scrumptious horn duet). While the performance was enthusiastically applauded (by a nearly full house), I felt that the symphony was the least satisfying part of the concert: the pace was rushed, and the intonation and precision we come to expect of the orchestra were less than perfect.

The evening began with a gracious accolade by Welser-Möst and Executive Director Gary Hanson for four retiring members of the orchestra, who together have given 150 years of service: Richard Weiner (Principal Percussion), Martin Flowerman (Bass), Elizabeth Camus (Oboe) and Philip Austin (Bassoon).

Nicholas Jones is Professor of English at Oberlin College and an avid amateur musician.

Published on clevelandclassical.com May 24, 2011

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