Returning for the first time this summer since pre-pandemic, The Cleveland Orchestra’s Summers at Severance series provides concertgoers with an appealing alternative — or supplement — to the orchestra’s summer festival at Blossom Music Center. Thursday evening’s installment saw the local debut of Czech conductor Petr Popelka — poised to become the Vienna Symphony’s chief conductor this fall — in a program of three alluring works, none overly familiar.
It’s rare treat to see César Franck represented on an orchestral program in a work that isn’t the justly famous D minor symphony. Le Chasseur maudit (“The Accursed Hunstman”) vividly paints the fantastical atmosphere of a Romantic fairy tale — and a rather macabre one at that. A declaratory horn call opened, with tolling bells adding to the orchestral effect. Popelka drew shattering fortissimos, rather caustic but perhaps fitting for this ride through hell. A section of mellow winds and brass with fluttering strings seemed to evoke Wagner, leading towards an ending of cinematic brilliance.
Speaking of cinematic brilliance, Korngold’s Violin Concerto is an extensive pastiche of material from the composer’s vast catalogue of film scores, though it hardly sounds like patchwork. Soloist James Ehnes opened with a honeyed theme that evoked the golden age of Hollywood with the wistfulness of a bygone era. Ehnes projected with clarity through the iridescent, technicolor orchestration, purveying a virtuosity that was in service of the work’s lyrical core rather than showy affectation.
The serenely beautiful Romance saw the soloist reaching high into the upper range of his instrument, a moment of pure poetry before the foot-tapping rambunctiousness of the finale. Rapid fire fingerwork in the violin was energetically supported by the orchestra’s rhythmic vitality. Ehnes indulged the audience with a generous encore in Ysaÿe’s Sonata no. 3, quite a staggering feat of virtuosity. Quipping that “this is the most glorious concert hall, so I’d like to keep playing for you,” he returned for a second encore, a radiant movement of Bach.
Dvořák’s Sixth Symphony was the first of the Czech composer’s symphonies to be published and did much to put him on the map and cement his international reputation. Warm brass opened the spacious Allegro non tanto, quickly growing in urgency, though here matters felt a bit overplayed. Gossamer strings added to the texture of a movement marked by contrasts of martial themes with more lyrical material.
The Adagio proceeded as a songful paragraph, with standout solos from the oboe and horn. An elaboration in the low strings was especially touching, quite a foil to the raucous, inimitably Czech furiant that followed. The crisply articulated finale began gracious and bucolic, landing on a stirring brass chorale. An impressive showing from Popelka — I look forward to seeing him return to the Severance Hall podium in due course.
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