[Trombone-l] More Cleveland stuff not audition related, really

[Jeff Albert]

With the proper principal trombonist, this would have never happened...   ;)
from:
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1180169224169660.xml&coll=2

Welser-MÖst tries it again, twice, after concerto stops orchestra in its
tracks
 Saturday, May 26, 2007 Donald Rosenberg
 *Plain Dealer Music Critic*

Anyone who has ever played an instrument or sung knows the uncomfortable
feeling that creeps in when things don't quite go as the composer planned.

Listeners aren't always aware of these discrepancies, but the Cleveland
Orchestra's audience Thursday at Severance Hall was abuzz at intermission
about the two interruptions during the last movement of Alban Berg's Chamber
Concerto for Piano, Violin and 13 Wind Instruments.

The piece was moving along when everything suddenly collapsed and music
director Franz Welser-MÖst uttered, "Sorry." He took the ensemble back a
bunch of bars and tried again, to no better effect.

"You see how difficult this is," the conductor said to the audience. "It
worked this morning."

Finally, Welser-MÖst got his meters straight, and the music proceeded to its
inevitable, touching end. One suspects the weekend's remaining performances
will go more smoothly.

Berg's score deserves the attention. It is a masterpiece of construction and
emotional content, albeit one of the most intricate works in the repertoire.
The composer flirts with 12-tone techniques as he incorporates hidden codes
and the musical names of his close Viennese colleagues Schoenberg and Webern
into the fabric.

The opening theme and variations introduce the primary motives and develop
them. The second movement is a palindrome that also serves as an impassioned
memorial to Schoenberg's first wife, Mathilde. Material from the first and
second movements are combined in the finale, whose tricky textures and
rhythms -- the cause of Thursday's distress -- are major challenges.

Despite the discomfort, the performance wasn't an outright disaster, though
it also wasn't very good. Mitsuko Uchida's forceful, alert pianism and
concertmaster William Preucil's silken violin solos gave vibrant voice to
Berg's profusion of ideas even when the interplay of solo instruments and
fine winds failed to achieve coherence or urgency. Welser-MÖst's helpful
comments before the performance about the work's "meaning" often didn't
transfer to the music-making itself.

After the vague harmonies and complexities of Berg, Brahms' Symphony No. 2
seemed like an old friend encountered on a warm spring day. This is the
brightest of the composer's four symphonies, full of sweetness, eloquence
and energy, with only a few clouds hovering.

Welser-MÖst connected vibrantly with the first movement's lyrical activity
and syncopated figures, and he joined the players in a noble reading of the
slow movement, which had superb horn, bassoon, oboe and flute contributions.
At such moments, the orchestra's distinguished Brahms tradition could be
richly discerned.

But the performance began to lose focus in the third movement, which was
short of charm and pointed articulation. The finale's mounting excitement
wasn't achieved, its activity sounding generic and the trombone lines too
cautiously gauged.

The program repeats at 8 tonight and 3 p.m. Sunday.


-- 
www.jeffalbert.com

www.scratchmybrain.com