United States Blossom Pageant 2023 [1]: Conrad Tao (piano), College students of the Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra / David Robertson (conductor). Blossom Music Heart, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, 5.8.2023. (MSJ)

Sarah Kirkland Snider – One thing for the Darkish
John Adams – Century Rolls
Sibelius – Symphony No.1 in E minor, Op.36

Some applications present an apparent thread on paper. However it’s a delight when a program’s threads look unusual on paper, solely to emerge when you hear the works in efficiency. That’s precisely what was achieved with this sensible Blossom Pageant efficiency by the Cleveland Orchestra. On paper, a contemporary American piano concerto and a brooding Nordic symphony might sound distant from one another, however conductor David Robertson had the keystone to hyperlink them.

The important thing was Sarah Kirkland Snider’s 2014 One thing for the Darkish, a mysterious and moody ten-minute opener that mixed some fashionable, modal minimalism relatable to Adams with cinematic gestures and harmonies that threw again to Sibelius. The piece began with heat, however there was thriller too. Snider rapidly established her lengthy recreation, harmonically spinning out passages, forcing a way of longing earlier than any phrase resolves. Because the piece went on, it grew darker, the good-looking surfaces turning into extra crinkled and troubled, increase stress that erupted at its climax in sonorous cracks of timpani and snare drum.

True to its harmonic model, it didn’t a lot resolve as dissolve on the finish, however the sense of a turning level had been made. Robertson was in assured management, and the orchestra performed magnificently, the reverberant acoustics of the Blossom pavilion contributing to the sense of environment. Not solely was Snider, who was in attendance, obtained warmly by the viewers, she was given a second ovation by the portion of the group that noticed her heading again to her seat afterwards, an auspicious welcome to a composer making her Cleveland Orchestra debut.

John Adams’s Century Rolls was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra in 1997 underneath Christoph von Dohnányi with Emanuel Ax as soloist. They subsequently recorded it, and I purchased that CD and listened to it numerous occasions over time. The work didn’t fairly make it into my favorites by this contemporary grasp, however that may change after the efficiency I heard right here. Adams might have written the demanding piano half with Ax in thoughts, however maybe someplace in his artistic soul, he was writing it for Conrad Tao, nonetheless a toddler on the time it was composed. Tao has mentioned that he grew up listening to the Ax recording, and thus has a long-standing relationship with the music. After listening to him carry out it, I must say he doesn’t simply have a relationship with Century Rolls, he just about owns it.

The piece, no less than partly impressed by the concept of player-piano rolls, requires monumental kinetic power, and Tao is an unstoppable machine, whether or not riffing on the rolls of the primary motion, hanging suspended within the trance of the gymnopédie-style gradual motion or discovering simply the suitable cosmic swing for the ‘Hail Bop’ finale. Robertson and the orchestra had been with Tao each step of the way in which, together with a stunning oboe solo from Frank Rosenwein. For an encore, Tao didn’t chill out: he performed his transcription of Artwork Tatum’s rendition of ‘Someplace Over the Rainbow’, a panoramic deal with. Tao is a formidable drive of nature, and it will likely be fascinating if we get an opportunity to listen to a few of his unique compositions in Cleveland.

With a lot positive music-making, one may need anticipated the Sibelius after intermission to be anticlimactic, however nothing may very well be farther from the reality. It appeared just like the longer and extra demanding the music, the extra energized David Robertson grew to become. Together with his recognized aptitude for contemporary music, one may anticipate he could be at a loss with early Sibelius at his most expansive, however Robertson pitched into it with whole dedication, savoring particulars whereas maintaining a tally of the prolonged buildings of the actions. Afendi Yusuf, Cleveland’s principal clarinet, goes to drive me to put money into a thesaurus to search out new phrases to seize his ethereal but pulsingly-alive enjoying of the opening solo, and its later callbacks.

The remainder of the orchestra was in prime kind, leaning into climaxes passionately whereas retaining textures bracingly clear, together with the all-important timpani motto within the scherzo. Robertson shrewdly distinguished between a crisp snap for his primary tempo within the finale, and a glacial freeze on the tragic conclusion. It was a masterful efficiency, Robertson delivering true management with out the grandstanding and hair-flapping of so lots of in the present day’s younger conductors. I particularly appreciated his maneuver throughout his return to the stage on the ovation, the place he waded into the orchestra to congratulate key gamers, then deftly moved apart as he gestured for all of them to face, disappearing behind them to ensure the ovation was directed on the individuals who made the sounds.

Robertson additionally gave particular consideration to Peter Otto, the primary affiliate concertmaster, who’s quickly leaving to turn out to be concertmaster of the Nashville Symphony. Otto served as interim chief of the orchestra for a number of seasons earlier than David Radzynski was named concertmaster. The viewers appeared very conscious of this information and made a particular effort to cheer for Otto, thanking him for his service, as did his colleagues on stage.

The live performance was preceded by a set from the Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra, a pupil orchestra program that has been restarting after the lengthy Covid hiatus. Rebuilding this system remains to be underway, however the present college students overcame a couple of ragged entrances and moments of shaky intonation, with conductor Daniel Reith main them by way of the overture to Beethoven’s Creatures of Prometheus, Fauré’s ‘Pavane’ and Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony.

The Beethoven was crisp, the Fauré flowing however not so quick as to preclude the suitable melancholy. The Prokofiev is a demanding piece and was a great exercise for the scholars. It have to be mentioned, although, that the Blossom acoustic shouldn’t be terribly pleasant to an intricate piece just like the Classical Symphony, with a lot element misplaced in reverberance. That acoustic was excellent, nevertheless, for the Sibelius, and the coed gamers returned for the large alternative to play alongside Cleveland Orchestra members, including sheer heft to the orchestra’s sound.

Mark Sebastian Jordan