Cleveland Plain Dealer
July 07, 2009

Strings and singers open summer in a delightfully American way

By Zachary Lewis
Plain Dealer Music Critic

The Cleveland Orchestra's Independence Day festivities drew to an elegant close Sunday with a refreshing evening of American music at Blossom Music Center.

Rather than spend its first concert of the year at its summer home repeating what it did downtown last Thursday, the orchestra devoted the occasion to a light but nonetheless enriching program of works by 20th-century Americans.

The only overlap, in fact, was "Summertime," the ever-popular aria from Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess," which soprano Angela Brown sang once again with sumptuous intensity, at a tempo far from lethargic.

Elsewhere, Brown's experience as a Verdi heroine shone through as the soprano brought shattering theatricality to "My Man's Gone Now," complete with an exquisitely tender melisma.

Joining Brown in other highlights were baritone Rodrick Dixon, of "Three Mo' Tenors" fame, and tenor Lester Lynch, who sang the roles of Porgy and Sportin' Life, respectively.

Lynch tried hard to steal the show, offering a hugely animated account of "It Ain't Necessarily So." Edging his voice into nasal territory, he portrayed a slick, swaggering character straight out of an old-time revival.

But in company with the orchestra and the energetic Blossom Festival Chorus, conducted by choral director Robert Porco, he tended to get lost. This ensured the eminence of Dixon, who proved an equal partner to Brown in "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" and soared with resonant splendor in "A Woman Is a Sometime Thing" and "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'."

The chorus, meanwhile, was the main attraction in six of Copland's 10 "Old American Songs." Artifice has no place in these delightful, straightforward settings of traditional tunes, and the group treated them all to the sincere, vibrant performance they deserve.

But the most memorable offerings of the evening were Morton Gould's "Spirituals," six movements for string orchestra based on African-American spirituals. Under the assured baton of assistant conductor Tito Muñoz, each piece came shining across as a gem of orchestral writing, robust in character and full of colorful instrumental pairings.

In "All God's Children Got Wings," the winning combination was the matching of nimble violin pizzicato to a warm melody in the basses, while in "Calvary," it was the second violins that supplied the music with its haunting, dirge-like aura.

Violas and cellos, too, relished their moment in the spotlight, injecting special richness into the theme of "Were You There?"

Together, the performances were enough to make anyone who attended glad to be able to answer that question in the affirmative.

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