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clevelandclassical.com
July 12, 2010
Concert Report: Cleveland Orchestra: Bernstein, Tchaikovsky & Elgar at
Blossom on July 11
By Daniel Hathaway
Tito Muñoz is bookending
his last Blossom season as assistant conductor of The Cleveland
Orchestra with three important concerts. At the end, on September 4 & 5,
he'll extend his very successful collaboration with the Joffrey Ballet
into a second year, and near the beginning on July 11, he led the
Orchestra in three substantial works in their second outing of the
summer in Cuyahoga Falls, with first associate concertmaster Peter Otto
in the co-pilot's seat.
The hot and humid evening
began appropriately with the jazzy, steamy, Latin rhythms of Leonard
Bernstein's 'Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story"', a suite the
composer arranged from the Broadway show two years after it opened in
September, 1957 (though he outsourced the orchestration to Sid Ramin and
Irwin Kostal). Conducting from memory, Muñoz established a laid-back
groove for the opening tune, "Cool", and largely through body language,
choreographed the orchestra expressively through the rest of Bernstein's
sometimes brilliant, sometimes ominous, sometimes heart-achingly tender
score. If the audience seemed surprised by the orchestra's finger
snapping near the beginning, they were right there with the second
"Mambo" shout when Muñoz whipped around to cue them. (But in a curious
lapse of control, he failed to cue the crowd that more music was still
to come after the "Rumble"). The Orchestra was flawless even when
Bernstein called for an ugly sound or two.
27-year old
American-Israeli violinist Giora Schmidt made such a self-effacing
entrance that it took a moment for the audience to realize that the
evening's featured soloist had taken the stage, but his reading of the
Tchaikovsky concerto was anything but modest: an extroverted player, he
let us know who he was from the beginning, and put his personal stamp on
the performance from his first musical entrance. This worked well for
him except when he impetuously pushed the tempo (the orchestra said "no,
thank you" on at least three occasions), but his playing of this
ingratiating work was characterful, lively and visceral, and aside from
some moments when the winds nearly engulfed the violin soloist, the
Orchestra was a lyrical and supple partner. (In a market where standing
ovations are almost a daily occurrence, let the record show that at
least a dozen audience members were moved to rise to their feet after
the first movement!)
After intermission, Tito
Muñoz -- in my opinion -- won the musical Triple Crown for programming
by choosing Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations for his third piece (when did I
last attend a concert furnished with three so equally attractive works?)
Again conducting from memory, Muñoz found perfect tempos and colors for
each of the fourteen musical portraits, and explored the entire dynamic
range from the barely discernible beginning of 'Nimrod' to the Edwardian
pomp of 'E.D.U.' Organist Joela Jones, playing on an electronic
instrument, added synthetic but nonetheless grand sonorities to the
final climaxes. And the Orchestra played with all its signature
transparency, virtuosity and power. In addition to many fine solos (horn
and flute were standouts), new principal cellist Mark Kosower made a
lovely moment out of his cameo in "B.G.N".
This was "Media Night" at
Blossom, and Ana Papakhian and Jennifer Schlosser, the gracious
Orchestra staffers who deal with communications and the press, hosted
two dozen or more of us for a pre-concert preview with the Joffrey
Ballet's artistic director, Ashley Wheater, and an intermission
reception with Giora Schmidt. Wheater talked about the five works to be
danced by the Joffrey at the end of the Blossom season on September 4 &
5 and showed DVD clips of the ballets, heaping praise on the Orchestra,
the "stunning venue" and Tito Muñoz ("working with him was the greatest
treat") for the quality of their collaboration a year ago. This season's
programs promise to be "more ambitious" both in terms of choreography
and production -- the lighting plot, in particular, will be completely
redesigned. A pair of concerts greatly to look forward to!
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