United States Prokofiev, Webern: The Cleveland Orchestra / Franz Welser-Möst (conductor). Carnegie Corridor, New York, 21.1.2024. (RP)
Prokofiev -Symphony No.2 in D minor, Op.40; Symphony No.5 in B-flat main, Op.100
Webern – Symphony, Op.21
Franz Welser-Möst introduced The Cleveland Orchestra to Carnegie Corridor for 2 concert events in as many days. The primary was dedicated to the music of Krenek, Mahler and Bartók (a livestream of an earlier efficiency was reviewed right here by Mark Sebastian Jordan), and this one to works by Prokofiev and Webern.
The concert events had been a part of the ‘Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice’ competition which types the centerpiece of the rest of Carnegie Corridor’s season operating from January via Could.
It got here as no shock that this Sunday afternoon live performance was bought out – The Cleveland Orchestra is without doubt one of the most interesting on this planet. The outpouring of affection from the viewers that greeted the orchestra and its conductor was, nevertheless, particular certainly.
The 2023-24 season marks Welser-Möst’s twenty-second with the orchestra. Earlier in January, Welser-Möst introduced that he wouldn’t renew his contract when it expires in 2027. When he steps off the rostrum in 2027, he’ll depart because the orchestra’s longest-serving musical chief since its founding in 1918. Bodily illnesses over the previous yr, together with again ache and the removing of a cancerous tumor, have undoubtedly performed a task in his resolution to depart.
Welser-Möst doesn’t courtroom the limelight, both as a conductor or an individual. Social media and flashy actions on the rostrum are usually not his fashion. Even by his strict requirements, nevertheless, his entry on the stage was subdued and his actions on the rostrum equally so. Not that it mattered a whit: the orchestra responded to his each want and crafted a efficiency of remarkable caliber.
Prokofiev’s Symphony No.2 premiered in Paris in 1925 and matches squarely into the years of the Weimar Republic (the title given to Germany’s authorities from 1919 to 1939). Throughout this era, from Germany’s defeat in World Conflict I to the rise of Adolf Hitler, the humanities flourished in Berlin and elsewhere. The flowering of varied Publish-Expressionist kinds, many with their hard-edged realism and brutal depiction of the mechanical age, would later be denounced by the Nazis as degenerate, with its creators fleeing Germany or perishing in loss of life camps.
Prokofiev left Russia in 1918 and would spend many of the following years in Paris, which was one other hotbed of the avant-garde. In his Second Symphony, he was influenced stylistically by Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.32 in C minor and Arthur Honegger’s Pacific 231, which was impressed by the Swiss composer’s enthusiasm for trains. The affect of the previous is seen when it comes to construction, whereas the latter is mirrored within the rating’s ‘sensible and difficult’ orchestration, within the composer’s phrases.
Prokofiev described the large first motion as being of ‘iron and metal’, with the brutality of the economic state mirrored within the clockwork precision of its rhythmic construction. The thunder of the decrease woodwinds and brass contribute to the motion’s diabolical mania. But over the ominous growling of the orchestra, moments of chic magnificence emerge, as when the trumpets infuse a melody with lyricism and sweetness. The glassine sheen produced by the violins, likewise, was a marvel. It ended with Welser-Möst seeming to seize the sound of the ultimate notes within the cup of his hand.
Within the second motion, Frank Rosenwein performed the serene theme with an astonishing sweetness of tone. There have been moments of gorgeous tranquility, with the orchestra reaching an luminous transparency that made the advanced sonorities that adopted – ominous thundering from the decrease brass and strings, machine-gun-like outbursts from the snare drum, overwhelming power from the orchestra taking part in en masse – much more terrifying.
Webern took the symphonic type to its reverse excessive in his two-movement work which lasts a mere ten minutes. Accomplished in 1928, it was his first twelve-tone orchestra work. The scale of the orchestra for which Webern wrote is as compact because the symphony’s construction, requiring solely strings (with out double basses), harp, clarinet, bass clarinet and two horns.
Precision is a given with Welser-Möst, however the attraction of this studying of Webern’s Symphony was what impressed probably the most. Passages emerged that had been gentle and playful, demonstrating the exceptional intimacy between conductor and orchestra. The violin taking part in was beautiful.
The ultimate work, Prokofiev’s Symphony No.5, dates from the ultimate months of the Second World Conflict within the European theater. Its premiere in Moscow on 13 January 1945 got here days after a Soviet victory over the Germans within the final battle of the warfare fought on Russian soil. It’s hovering music, uplifting in spirit and fueled by patriotism, and it discovered quick reputation with each Soviet and American audiences weary of warfare.
Welser-Möst started the primary motion by drawing a mild bloom of orchestra sound. There was extra a way of repose than triumph because the motion progressed, exemplified by the soothing, calm taking part in of the cellos, with a violent cymbal crash interrupting the reverie. Against this, the second motion was fleet and pressing, performed with the identical mechanical precision heard within the Second Symphony.
The gradual motion was notable for the sweeping melodies Welser-Möst drew from the orchestra, particularly from the strings. Afendi Yusuf performed its partaking solos with sweetness of tone and the requisite flare. The finale had its lighter moments and even a little bit of humor, however it was the emotionally charged concluding measures of the coda that introduced the viewers to its toes.
Rick Perdian
