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Colors on the Palette Cleveland
Blossom Music Center
07/10/2011 -
John Adams: Violin Concerto
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No.9 in D minor
Leila Josefowicz (violin)
The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst (conductor)
F. Welser-Moest (© Roger Mastroianni)
The summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra is at the lovely Blossom Music Center and hearing them make beautiful music on a warm evening is a rare treat. Joining the ensemble where needed this summer are some students from the Cleveland Institute of Music and they fit in perfectly. The orchestra will be traveling to the Lincoln Center Festival to play four Bruckner Symphonies (Nos. 5, 7, 8 and 9) in concert with modern works of John Adams which is not only a wonderful opportunity for the students but a treat for the NYC audiences experiencing this vision of Maestro Welser-Möst.
L. Josefowicz (© J. Henry Fair)
Leila Josefowicz opened the concert with the Adams Violin Concerto. Dressed in a long, abstract-print gown of blues and pinks, her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, she took the stage and immediately launched into the work, playing almost constantly as the orchestra wove a tapestry of sound around her. This is not a piece for the musical neophyte and the audience became restless by the second movement. Although the work has a very strong sense of movement - it was co-commissioned by the New York City Ballet - and was played with great technical virtuosity by Ms. Josefowicz, those in the pavilion seemed to focus on the extraneous, such as the violins playing their instruments as ukuleles or the repetitive chirping of a bird in the rafters; both generated smiles and snickering. As in the Bruckner to follow, many were clueless as to when to applaud, thinking things finished before actual time. Applause at the end was fervently appreciative of the efforts of both soloist and ensemble.
The family in front of us did not return for the second half of the program and I noticed that other seats which had been formerly occupied were vacant. It was a shame, because at the very least, Bruckner can be used as a teaching moment for it illuminates every corner of the augmented orchestra and in the hands of a master craftsman such as Maestro Welser-Möst it glows with life. He seems to have this music in his soul and knows how to make it express precisely what the composer wanted us to experience. This 9th Symphony was Bruckner’s last work and he died leaving it unfinished, but the three movements that were completed stand as a whole. Again, some in the audience became confused and began to applaud at the conclusion of the divided second movement, but the orchestra continued right on, passing the very clear themes through the flutes and oboes and from one string section to another.
At first observance, the Maestro’s movements seem spare or even mechanical-looking, but after having seen him conduct several of the Bruckner symphonies, I’ve come to realize that it is his deep connection with this music that enables him to imbue the orchestra with the same passion so that they are “right there” with him every moment of the piece. While Bruckner may not be as well-known as Beethoven, Brahms and Haydn, Maestro Welser-Möst gives the public a chance to look deeper into this composer who became the foundation of modern composition and for that, we are grateful.
Suzanne Torrey
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