Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Playing Beethoven and Janáček, the workmanlike CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA proves its status as one of the greats

• By drediman
• March 19, 2025
• No Comments

This week, the world-class Cleveland Orchestra has returned to Carnegie Hall for two performances only. Last night’s first concert was substantially modified when up-and-coming Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian withdrew — due to personal reasons — from the concert earlier this month. Originally on the bill were Haydn’s Symphony No. 52, Strauss’s Four Last Songs, and the last scene from Puccini’s Suor Angelica. In an inspired pivot, these three works were replaced by a pair of Beethoven pieces, which joined a suite from Janácek’s grim opera From the House of the Dead (which was originally programmed for the evening).

Kicking off the concert was Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, which set a compellingly relevant running theme for the evening. As ever, the Cleveland forces’ demeanor was workmanlike, letting their balanced, meticulous playing do the talking — likely the influence of their highly respected, long-time maestro Franz Welser-Möst (who plans to step down as the ensemble’s music director in 2027, after an impressive 25 years in the esteemed position). The last two movements of the warhorse symphony were particularly well-judged — transcendental even — as the music emerged, rhythmically precise yet richly textured, from existential darkness into triumphant, hard-won freedom and light.

The luxurious luster of Cleveland’s strings was particularly evident in the Janácek piece, a suite from an opera depicting the lives of prisoners in a Siberian labor camp. Despite the darker hues and slower cadence of the music (effectively arranged by Frantisek Jilek), Welser-Möst’s conducting of it was firm and shapely, providing the orchestra a steady lens through which to examine freedom under duress. Thematically, the piece flowed powerfully into the final stretch of the evening — Beethoven’s Leonore Overture — which proved to be an uplifting inspiring final thought (and a perfect coda to the recent fantastic revival of Fidelio at the Met). Suffice to say, it was performed with great insight and measured virtuosity.

The Cleveland Orchestra is also scheduled to appear at Carnegie Hall tonight with an altogether different program comprised of Stravinsky’s colorful ballet score for Pétrouchka and Tchaikovsky’s emotive Fifth Symphony.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA
Classical Music
Carnegie Hall
1 hour, 45 minutes (with one intermission)
Through March 19