CONSIDERED OPINION OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA CONCERT OF 11/08/07

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No 34 in C major, K. 338; Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 (Herbert Blomstedt, cond.)

Unless you're familiar with the geography of southwest Germany, the name of Karlsruhe might not ring a bell. But the fact that you're listening to my voice owes something to the city. For it was at the University of Karlsruhe that Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, verifying a prediction by James Clerk Maxwell, became the first person to send and receive radio waves. Could he have imagined the future of that technology? Far from it. When one of his students asked him what one could do with such transmissions, Hertz is said to have replied: "Nothing, I guess."

Radio transmission was by no means the only great "first" to come from Karlsruhe. Almost exactly halfway between Clerk Maxwell's prediction and Hertz's experimental verification, the same city saw the world premiere of Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 1—music conducted by Herbert Blomstedt on this weekend's Cleveland Orchestra concerts.

Engineering—which to this day is deeply indebted to Hertz's experiments—is not a bad metaphor for Blomstedt's approach to the Brahms First. From the first pages, Blomstedt leads the symphony with an elegant economy of effort that would make an engineer proud. Some conductors treat the opening section of the First as a creation of titanic proportions, impressive because of its sheer aural bulk. In other readings, it is a dramatic showpiece—an inexorable advance toward the Rubicon separating introduction from Allegro. But in Blomstedt's hands there's nothing unnecessarily showy about the symphony's start. It seems, more than anything, like the music's engine room: not outwardly prepossessing, but nonetheless the source of the energy that drives the rest of the work.

And what power it generates! You don't realize, until you reach the fortissimo climax of the first-movement development, just how much intensity Blomstedt has managed to build up without ever resorting to theatrics. The three succeeding movements are just as straightforward and just as effective. The Andante sostenuto is not sentimental; nor is the trombone and bassoon chorale in the fourth movement's introduction particularly mysterious. And the big tune that follows that introduction is never overplayed. We are in the realm of direct statement. It's not the only way to lead the symphony, but it's exceedingly persuasive.

Indeed, it was when Blomstedt adopted more interventionist tactics that he faltered. The opening Allegro vivace of the Mozart Symphony No. 34 suffered from excessive shifts in momentum. But Blomstedt's treatment of Mozart's Andante di molto combined delicacy and reserve with a nicely crisp pace.

Still, it's Blomstedt's extremely efficient Brahms that will, I suspect, remain in the memory. After all, there's much to be said, in both art and science, for a sense of economy. Someone once observed that, while the optimist thinks the glass half full and the pessimist thinks it half empty, the engineer knows the truth: that the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

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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