CONSIDERED OPINION OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA CONCERT OF 4/12/07

Franz Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 103 ("Drumroll"). György Ligeti: Lontano. Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 83. (Emanuel Ax, p.; Franz Welser-Möst, cond.)

A bit of distance can make a world of difference. Look out the window of an airplane at tiny cars toting tiny people to tiny destinations, and you might conclude, with Casablanca's Rick Blaine (speaking at, yes, an airfield) that your own problems “don't amount to a hill of beans." The real drama of the world is something much vaster.

Over three and a half centuries before the Wright Brothers, Albrecht Altdorfer captured the same effect in a famous painting depicting Alexander's defeat of the Persians at Issus. Hordes of soldiers swarm over the bottom half of Altdorf's panel. Their innumerable life and death struggles will collectively decide the fates of the Persian and Macedonian Empires. But the commotion of the battlefield is dwarfed by drama on a much larger scale: the sun breaking magnificently through the clouds. That image is, in one sense, a final scorecard for the contest below—a symbolic reflection of the Macedonian victory. But at the same time it transcends it.

Altdorfer’s Battle of Alexander was one of the inspirations for György Ligeti's Lontano, which the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst perform at Severance Hall this weekend. And in describing the painting’s dynamic—that sense of vast, slow movement at once summing and overwhelming a bustle of human-sized activity—you might also be describing the impression left by Ligeti’s composition. Welser-Möst’s performance of Lontano was detailed, analytical, and (despite an excess of audience noise) particularly effective in the work’s quietest passages, which teetered at the edge of audibility.

As a companion to Ligeti’s masterwork, Haydn’s “Drumroll” Symphony seemed undersized, even though it’s two or three times Lontano’s length. Welser-Möst elicited a nice variety of texture and character from the ensemble in the symphony’s second movement, and the outer movements, though occasionally a bit muddy, were enjoyably spry.

But it was after intermission that Lontano found an appropriate counterweight: Brahms’ massive Second Piano Concerto. Drama? Power? Yes, soloist Emanuel Ax’s interpretation had them both. But there was also an impressive sense of economy, even in the work’s most feverish moments. The flashy, virtuosic writing for piano in the first two movements was emphatic and declarative rather than swaggering. And Ax’s Andante maintained a carefully gauged balance between ardor and reticence.

If Ligeti and Altdorfer take a thousand tiny gestures and sum them up in visions that are cosmic in scope, Ax’s performance Thursday evening managed the opposite trick: taking Brahms’ monumental concerto and finding in it something restrained, intimate, and crafted on a decidedly human scale.

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.

Now, you needn't miss a single edition of Considered Opinions. Subscribe to the program as a WCLV podcast, and every installment of this fascinating series will be delivered automatically to your iTunes or other feed aggregator! Or, if you prefer, you can access the texts of older editions of Considered Opinions in the Considered Opinions Archive.