Over the weekend, The Cleveland Orchestra presented a sumptuous all-Tchaikovsky program. Including among the most frequently performed of all concertos and symphonies, the repertoire may not have been the most intrepid, but these forces proved that one can never hear this music too many times when performances are as inspired and revelatory as they were Sunday afternoon. At the podium was Cleveland’s Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, in seemingly robust form, despite having had to make numerous cancellations this season – including the performance of this program just the night before.
No doubt the main reason behind the capacity crowd was pianist Yuja Wang. Appearing on the Severance Hall stage exactly a month after her acclaimed duo recital with Víkingur Ólafsson, this time she treated the audience to a majestic, arresting account of the Piano Concerto no. 1 in B flat minor. A glorious call to arms in the brass began, answered by big-boned chords in the piano that filled the hall resoundingly. Wang’s technical arsenal was second to none – her octave passages in particular had to be seen to be believed – yet this was never purely for show, entertaining as it might have been, but in dutiful service to the artistic if unrelenting demands of the composer.
Playful material in the piano saw some delightful interplay with the winds, and I was struck by the pianist’s fluid, liquid lyricism. The first movement cadenza started with delicate filigree in the piano’s upper register with a subtle melodic line delicately brought out, ultimately leading a close just as bold as the movement began. A touching flute solo marked the Andantino semplice, answered by Wang’s velvety touch on the keyboard. The finale was one of driving dance rhythms, given at a breakneck tempo without sounding rushed. Despite the work’s pianistic brilliance, it felt that piano and orchestra were very much equal partners here, with martial material in the brass particularly rousing.
Wang indulged the crowd with two impressive encores, beginning with Philip Glass’ Etude no. 6 wherein minimalist pulses burgeoned to resonant climaxes. And then, back to the composer of the day, in Samuil Feinberg’s transcription of the Scherzo from Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique – a dazzling quantity, with the pianist proving she can singlehandedly do the job of the orchestra.
The Symphony no. 5 in E minor followed, a work TCO performed just a few nights prior at Carnegie Hall. A somber clarinet solo representing fate set matters in motion, coalescing as a march underpinned by ominous pulsating, and growing to searing passions. Heart-wrenching strings began the slow movement, countered by a horn solo from Nathaniel Silberschlag that positively glowed.
Out of tragedy emerged a waltz, lithe and delicate – though certainly no trifle. Some will conduct the rapid passages for strings with a gossamer texture akin to Mendelssohn, but Welser-Möst offered a weightier, measured take, perhaps more authentically Russian. Gleaming brass in the finale hinted at the ultimate triumph, yet it was still a wild ride to the end, with the orchestra offering a refined clarity even in the densest of passages.
