CONSIDERED OPINION OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA CONCERT OF 8 DECEMBER 2006

Ludwig van Beethoven: Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus [The Creatures of Prometheus], Op. 43—Overture. Ned Rorem: English Horn Concerto. Gustav Holst: The Planets, Op. 32. (Robert Walters, English horn; Lawrence Krauss, narr.; Michael Stern, cond.)

Of all the reactions to Pluto's expulsion from the family of full-fledged planets, few have been as colorful as that of astrologer Shelley Ackerman, reported in the Wall Street Journal this past August. "Whether he's a planet, an asteroid, or a radioactive matzo ball," Ackerman said, "Pluto has proven himself worthy of a permanent place in all horoscopes."

And yet Pluto's demotion to "dwarf planet" has brought life back into conformity with art. It was just a few years ago that Colin Matthews composed a "Pluto" movement to add to Gustav Holst's The Planets. Now the Holst suite need no longer rue its pre-Clyde Tombaugh dimensions. Its seven movements again match up with the planets judged to join us in the Solar System. And it's in its original, unaugmented form that The Planets appears on this weekend's Cleveland Orchestra concerts.

And yet, not quite its original form. At three of the concerts—including the Friday night program that I managed to catch—The Planets is drafted for use as a film score, accompanying NASA videos projected on a screen above the Severance Hall stage. It's a strange juxtaposition: Holst's vivid astrological imaginings commenting on astronomical reality. Were Holst's inventions not so inherently compelling, it would be easy to dismiss the whole business as absurd: the equivalent of asking a UFO abductee to gloss the workings of the International Space Station. And yet, even with a genuine musical masterpiece pressed into service, the whole doesn't quite work.

A concert snapshot: narrator Lawrence Krauss reminds the audience that the surface of Venus is hellishly hot, the pressure there the same as what we'd encounter 3000 feet below an Earthly ocean's surface. Then conductor Michael Stern launches into Holst's "Venus, Bringer of Peace," while we watch some slightly jerky animation designed to make us think we're flying over the planet's desolate surface. What have we learned? That astrology and science, Holst's Venus and the Magellan-mapped body that orbits a hundred million kilometers from the sun, have precious little to do with one another.

The traditional parts of the weekend's program prove far more successful: Stern's vehement rendition of Beethoven's "Creatures of Prometheus" overture; Robert Walters' restrained, eloquent performance of Ned Rorem's English Horn Concerto.

But it's The Planets that the audience has by and large come for, and it's Holst's Planets and NASA's planets that ultimately detract from one another. To be sure, there's something wonderful about the Cleveland Orchestra doing something—anything—to enliven the staid Severance Hall environment. It's a goal that doesn't necessarily require grand gestures: the ensemble could do wonders just changing the lighting now and then, or dispensing with fusty and formal concert attire. >But when you find yourself listening to Holst's powerfully expressive "Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age," you had best not be distracted sorting out the planet's swarm of moons, trying to distinguish Tethys from Dione from Iapetus from the occasional radioactive matzo ball.

I'm Jerome Crossley for WCLV 104/9.

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