CONSIDERED OPINIONS OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA BLOSSOM CONCERT OF 8/7/05

In 1944, Aaron Copland wrote that "just as every ten year old American boy dreams of being President some day, so every twenty year old American composer dreams of being played by [Serge] Koussevitzky." Koussevitzky's support of contemporary music stemmed in part from having
himself set pen to staff paper on more than one occasion. Often, his writing put the spotlight on the double bass: the instrument on which he earned a reputation as a virtuoso before he took up conducting.

Koussevitzky's 1902 Double Bass Concerto received a rare outing at this Sunday's Cleveland Orchestra concert, courtesy of the ensemble's own Maximilan Dimoff. Dimoff seemed to handle the work with commitment and technical poise. I say "seemed to" because the acoustics at Blossom Music Center sopped up much of the solo part. The challenges of balancing a solo double bass against an accompanying orchestra would tax the resources of a much more fastidious venue. The pace that Dimoff and conductor Jahja Ling set for the concerto's middle movement was considerably quicker than that favored by the composer himself, judging from the 1929 recording Koussevitzky made. And yet the music seems to work better and retain a clearer melodic shape at the quicker tempo.

Sergei Khachatryan joined the orchestra for the second concerto on this epic-length program: Aram Khachaturian's 1940 Violin Concerto. I was a little disappointed with this young virtuoso's 2004 Severance Hall performance of the Sibelius concerto. The Khachaturian, by contrast, could have been written with his particular gifts in mind. His treatment of the first movement cadenza was a sonic tour de force. Khachatryan opted to sacrifice a bit of the cadenza's shape, and instead treat it as a shattered mirror reflecting timbral and thematic fragments of the movement. The effect was both provocative and dazzling.

The middle third of Sunday's concert--which included the two concertos and a zesty reading of Kabelevsky's "Colas Breugnon" Overture--was preceded by the Kent-Blossom Chamber Orchestra's lively performances of Schubert's Third Symphony and Ravel's "Le Tombeau de Couperin," both led by conductor Andrew Grams. In the final third of the program, that ensemble's forty-some students joined Ling and the Cleveland Orchestra for what were, not surprisingly, robust, decidedly large-scale versions
of Falla's second "Three-Cornered Hat" suite and Rimsky-Korsakov's"Capriccio espagnol." This year's Kent Blossom musicians have both moxie and professional poise, and one hopes many of them will have the luck to go on to distinguished musical careers.

And yet, at times, more than just good luck is in order. The same year that his double bass concerto was premiered, Koussevitzky married the daughter of a wealthy Russian tea merchant. Her family's money proved more than a little helpful. A few years later, when he felt ready to take up the baton, Koussevitzky did what most young musicians could only imagine. For his conducting debut, he hired the services of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Jerome Crossley for WCLV 104/9.

Remember gatherings where relatives press tempting morsels upon you with a "Try this--you'll love it. Oh, don't care for that? Well then, how about this?" If you've had such an experience, then you might think it was "deju vu all over again" if you attended Sunday night's Blossom Festival concert. Listeners were offered a smorgasbord that featured Jahja Ling and the Cleveland Orchestra and Andrew Grams, Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra, leading the collegians who make up the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra. The three hour plus event spread a rich musical feast of seven works before us.

The young Kent Blossom ensemble opened the program with Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 3 in D major (K.200). Schubert himself was only eighteen when he composed this work in a couple of months in the summer of 1815 and his dependence on traditional models shows--it sounds a bit like Mozart wearing Beethoven's clothes. If one compares it to his next work, the Symphony No. 4, the two sound like an exercise set for a young genius feeling his oats. The third symphony is a sprightly work, written as a dash: whereas Symphony No. 4, which opens the same way, with a big chord, falls into deepest melancholy, minor gloom and key. It's something like what the English poet Milton did as a young man, nearly two centuries earlier when he showed off with a pair of "happy/sad" works-- "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso." "L'Allegro" is upbeat, celebrating "heart-easing mirth"; "Il Penseroso," sees a dark world full of "vain deluding joys." Lucky for us, we heard the "be happy" version of the pair.

Grams conducted carefully, ensuring that all notes would be hit, but the result seemed muted at times. It would have been fun if they'd been turned loose to risk a more hyperactive version, especially for the closing presto which can sparkle more if played as a recklessly anaerobic piece. The Kent/Blossom group also played Ravel's dreamlike Le Tombeau de Couperin . The plucked string passages of this meditative work set the sparrows in the Pavilion to mad twittering.

After the first intermission the Cleveland Orchestra played a dashing little work by Kabalevsky, Overture to Colas Breugnon , and then welcomed two fine works for solo instrument. Cleveland Orchestra Principal Bassist Max Dimoff played Koussevitzky's "Double bass Concerto in F-sharp minor, Opus 3" with polish and conviction (though the orchestra tended to step on some of the lowest bass notes). The evening's showiest showpiece (and richest dish, to continue the food metaphor) came when 20-year-old Sergey Khachatryan played Khachaturian's "Violin Concerto" with brooding fire, confidence, intensity and all the passion a violin solo can evoke. It's the sort of performance (and piece) that sends little kids screaming to their parents that they must have violin lessons. Khachatryan focused inward, often playing with eyes closed, and became one with his violin as they turned into a single musical entity.

After the second intermission both orchestras joined on stage for a big finale playing De Falla's Suite No. 2 from The Three-Cornered Hat and Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol , Opus 34. It must have been a thrilling experience for the collegians to play with the Cleveland Orchestra and the large sound the stage full of musicians sent out into the hills of Blossom furnished a very sweet conclusion to a huge feast of music.

Sated, one would not have dared to (or could have) asked for more.

Laura Kennelly for Considered Opinions

Jerome LaCorte | Program Director | Phone: 330.672.2613 | E-mail: kbm@kent.edu