CONSIDERED OPINION OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA CONCERT OF 5/10/07

Jean Sibelius: Night-Ride and Sunrise. Richard Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 2. Sergey Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5. (Richard King, horn; Franz Welser-Möst, cond.)

The “composers’ state poultry farm” was what Prokofiev called his wartime residence near Ivanovo. The city itself is known as a center for textile production. And because a disproportionate number of its workers have historically been women, the Russians have given Ivanovo a nickname: the “city of brides.” But Prokofiev, working at the rural retreat run by the Composers Union outside the city, found himself in closer contact with livestock than with fabric factories. So, too, did Aram Khachaturian, who described the estate as “an institution for the production of masterpieces and pigs.”

One masterpiece to come from Ivanovo was Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, which received a bracing performance by the Cleveland Orchestra and Paavo Järvi at Thursday evening’s Severance Hall concert. Järvi makes no attempt to smooth the symphony’s contours. Instead, he emphasizes its discontinuities and variegated textures. When Prokofiev marks the beginning of the second-movement trio “Meno mosso”—“with less movement”—Järvi more than takes him at his word, leading the passage with striking deliberation. He is not afraid to jar the listener either with split-second changes of tone or with pungent orchestral coloring. So it is that, in the opening Andante, even conventional sonata form is made to sound like a decidedly modern gesture.

It’s the sort of music-making that can easily overshadow the rest of the program. And sure enough, the concert’s selections by Sibelius and Richard Strauss couldn’t really compete. Prokofiev himself once reported having slept through a rendition of the Sibelius Second Symphony. Perhaps the same composer’s Night Ride and Sunrise, at a quarter of the symphony’s length, would have proven less soporific. The transparency with which the Cleveland Orchestra played the tone poem on Thursday could have made for a memorable performance had it not highlighted a number of instances of imprecision.

The Orchestra’s own Richard King took center stage in the Second Horn Concerto of Richard Strauss. It’s an impressive piece to hear live, particularly in view of the challenges inherent in playing the temperamental solo instrument. But King’s interpretation lacked the range of expression heard in the concerto’s best recordings. There was a certain reticence in the first two movements, a shortage of levity in the third. This was a good version of the work—but not a great one.

No, it’s the Prokofiev that you’ll not want to miss—and in particular the invigorating reading of its scherzo. Performances like this are doubtless the reason Paavo Järvi’s Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra contract has just been extended until 2011, with a provision for automatic renewal thereafter. As they say—with all due apologies to the poultry farmers of Ivanovo—that ain’t chicken feed.

Jerome Crossley for WCLV 104/9.

Considered Opinions is WCLV's program that reviews performances by Cleveland-area music ensembles. Commentator Jerome Crossley offers an informed and witty perspective on performances by groups that include the Cleveland Orchestra, Opera Cleveland, and Red {an orchestra}. Considered Opinions typically airs at 9.45 a.m., 12.20 p.m., and 5.20 p.m. the Friday following a Cleveland Orchestra concert, and it repeats at 9.45 a.m. on Saturday. Other air-times depend on the schedule of the ensembles reviewed.

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