United States Krenek, Mahler, Bartók: Cleveland Orchestra / Franz Welser-Möst (conductor). Liivestreamed on adella.com from the Mandel Live performance Corridor at Severance Music Heart, Cleveland, 13.1.2024. (MSJ)
Krenek – Kleine Symphonie, Op.58
Mahler – Adagio from Symphony No.10 in F-sharp main
Bartók (arr. Konopka) – String Quartet No.3; Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin
This weekend was a doubly momentous event for the Cleveland Orchestra. It marked the return of music director Franz Welser-Möst after surgical procedure and preliminary therapy for most cancers, and it was good to see him trying properly if, understandably, a bit of drained. It additionally marked his first look after asserting the tip date for his quarter-century journey as captain of this esteemed ship. Simply days earlier than the live performance, Welser-Möst stated that he’ll depart as Cleveland’s music director in 2027, at which level he can have had the longest tenure within the orchestra’s historical past, with twenty-five years on the helm.
That journey didn’t begin easily: the conductor wanted time to seek out his method of speaking with the gamers to realize a particular type. The richly coloured sound underneath earlier music director Christoph von Dohnányi was deeply ingrained, however Welser-Möst labored to make the orchestra sleeker in sound, later redeveloping the sense of coloration however inside the litheness that has turn into their trademark underneath his management.
Alongside the best way, Welser-Möst needed to tangle with a hostile critic very dedicated to the previous type; and along with his personal baggage as a musician who had been pressured to develop within the highlight with an ill-advised run as music director of the London Philharmonic earlier than he was thirty years previous. Studying the repertory as you’re presenting it’s unforgiving and, regardless of sure moments of brilliance (similar to his stay LPO recording of Bruckner’s Fifth – thirty years on, nonetheless a traditional), Welser-Möst was nagged by detractors who referred to as him subpar. After almost leaving the enterprise, he soldiered on and step by step rebuilt his profession, and his time in Cleveland has been a key pillar. Difficult himself to develop as an artist and re-envision his idea of musical works has led to a late flowering that has been fascinating to witness. Now sixty-three, Welser-Möst is well-situated to have a kind of grand late careers as a music sage, like Günter Wand or Herbert Blomstedt. ‘Frankly Worse Than Most’ is starting to sound ‘Frankly Wiser Than Most’.
The viewers’s welcome means that many in Cleveland are grateful for the maestro’s time right here and can at all times be glad to see him return. A key motive is the best way that he continues to stretch the repertory and discover new methods to juxtapose items. Whereas this live performance introduced collectively works which can be in some methods very completely different, they do have many connections. Austrian composer Ernst Krenek started as a fervent disciple of the nice Gustav Mahler, even marrying one among Mahler’s daughters. When Mahler’s widow, Alma, seemed round for potential composers to complete her husband’s sketch for a Tenth Symphony, she proposed it to her son-in-law. After trying over the rating, Krenek declined, already sensing that he would by no means have the ability to match Mahler at his personal recreation, and precipitating the dramatic stylistic shift that he would quickly bear, turning each neoclassical and hypermodern, and incorporating American jazz into his work.
Krenek’s Kleine Symphonie is his (miniature) magnum opus from this part of his profession. He had written quasi-Mahlerian big symphonies however now turned to one among lower than twenty minutes to encapsulate a brand new imaginative and prescient. It begins with a gradual however inquisitive introduction that leads into an angular, neo-Baroque primary theme. The orchestra is small – a lot of the center strings are changed with a continuo group of mandolins, guitars and banjos offering vivid dabs of coloration. One can hear the affect of each older kinds and new voices similar to Igor Stravinsky, Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith and Béla Bartók, together with sassy flecks of jazz. The kinds turn into extra built-in because it develops, representing the form of racial mixing that led the Nazis to ban Krenek’s music. Witty and enticing, it was in certain palms with Welser-Möst, who loved the comical moments with out exaggerating them, whereas additionally respecting the underlying seriousness. It’s no accident that he would champion a little-known piece like this at a time of political and social stress worldwide.
Whereas Krenek ended up declining to aim performing Mahler’s Tenth, he did assist current variations of the primary and third actions. Curiously, regardless of making these connections specific in this system, the orchestra apparently didn’t use the Krenek version of the Adagio, which that they had completed when George Szell recorded the actions with the Clevelanders again within the Sixties. However the variations between Krenek’s version and fashionable variations are minor. What was much more necessary was the natural unfolding of Welser-Möst’s efficiency. Unhurried however by no means dragging, the music flowed out in a single breath, all tempos intently built-in to keep away from jagged gear shifts. It’s fascinating sufficient to take heed to this orchestra play the music however watching it in a high-quality livestream gave the extra alternative to observe the gamers and conductor work together. The musicians watch their conductor and one another way over most ensembles do, and so they hear, always integrating and interrelating what’s being performed. Welser-Möst let the well-known nine-note scream of a chord on the climax converse for itself, with out dramatic milking, which fits the intimate really feel of this efficiency. However it could be unsuitable to explain it as chilly, for the connections of the gamers fueled a lyrical heat that was touching. In typical type, the conductor didn’t linger over the later pages of the Adagio, quietly restoring serenity by the plain-spoken ending.
The string-dominated textures of the Mahler supplied a surprisingly simple bridge to the Bartók. This association was initially deliberate between composer Stanley Konopka and Welser-Möst, nevertheless it was blocked by the composer’s son, Peter Bartók. After he handed away, Konopka proposed renewing the delayed mission, and this association for double string orchestra was the end result. Peter Bartók needn’t have anxious: the association provides it a unique really feel, after all, however the uncompromising music isn’t dissipated. Konopka’s association opens with the principal violins, viola and cello – the unique string quartet, in different phrases. The remainder of the strings enter on the primary forte, a startling impact that abruptly rips the quartet from its normal intimate world into one thing on a cosmic scale. The association then goes forwards and backwards between the intimacy of quartet moments and the resonant ripples of the total string ensemble, together with bass viols doubling among the cello bass strains. I have to admit that I used to be doubtful earlier than listening to the association, however I used to be fully gained over, not least due to the vaunted, chamber-like method of the Cleveland strings, listening, reacting and cohering so intently. There’ll at all times be a spot for the unique intimate quartet, and positively a full string ensemble can not transfer as shortly or nimbly as a quartet or the musical concepts get blurred. However given its almost epic house, the work asserts its genius another way.
Final, however removed from least, was Welser-Möst’s rendition of the suite from Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin, lengthy in his repertory. It lastly introduced that additional spark to the conductor’s eyes that long-time followers will acknowledge with delight. Whereas Welser-Möst didn’t push the lurid facet of this provocative piece, he didn’t pull his punches both, calling on the trombone part to guide with gleaming aptitude. He lastly relaxed his reserve and let all the Cleveland Orchestra construct up an incredible head of steam, bringing the viewers to its toes. It was an important second, one which portends properly for the remaining time of the conductor’s tenure.
The audio and video have been exemplary as streamed on the orchestra’s adella.com website.
Mark Sebastian Jordan
