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THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA
ISRAEL AT 60 CELEBRATION CONCERT
MICHAEL STERN/ SHAI WOSNER
PROKOFIEV/ MOZART/ BEETHOVEN (3-26-08)
By Lawrence Budmen
The Cleveland Orchestra drew a full house on Wednesday at the Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall for a musical celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. While the audience was highly enthusiastic, the program’s artistic rewards were more intermittent.
After vociferous performances of the familiar Walter Damrosch arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner and Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem (in a transcription by Italian conductor Bernardino Molinari), guest conductor Michael Stern led Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes, a work composed in America in 1919 on commission from a group of musicians seeking funds to open a music conservatory in Jerusalem.
Stern brought stylish verve to Prokofiev’s wry version of Klezmer riffs. Principal clarinetist Franklin Cohen’s superb agility fused classical precision with the boisterous vigor of a village band. The Clevelanders’ gossamer string textures conveyed the misty impressionism of the score’s contrasting central episode.
Israeli pianist Shai Wosner, winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the BBC New Generation Artist Award, was a nimble soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.21 in C Major, one of the composer’s most popular works. Wosner’s flawless technique and bright tone enhanced his graceful reading of the vivacious finale.
Earlier the pianist offered an inventive first movement cadenza with a witty quotation from the aria Non piu andrai from Mozart’ s Marriage of Figaro. His highly romanticized account of the famous Andante recalled the beautiful but heavy handed playing of Geza Anda on the soundtrack of the film Elvira Madigan.
Stern capably delineated the interaction between soloist and ensemble. String tone was overly syrupy and could have benefited from a lighter touch. Joshua Smith’s silvery flute solos brought Mozartean sparkle to this lyrical interpretation.
Stern is a workmanlike journeyman rather than inspired leader. His account of Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 in c minor was more literal than revelatory.
The performance’s best moments were in the second movement Andante con moto when Stern evoked a singing line, aided by the orchestra’s plush strings, particularly the deeply impassioned, richly textured violas. At times the Allegro finale was overly pedantic, lacking inspirational fire.
Even with less than stellar leadership, the ensemble’s superb playing was a vivid demonstration of why the Clevelanders remain the jewel in America’s orchestral crown.
Copyright Sun-Sentinel
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