United States Elgar, Prokofiev, Walton: Behzod Abduraimov (piano), Cleveland Orchestra / Vasily Petrenko (conductor). Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, Cleveland, 1.12.2022. (MSJ)
Elgar – Cockaigne Overture (‘In London Town’), Op.40
Prokofiev – Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.16X
Walton – Symphony No.1 in B-flat minor
Some orchestral works are indestructible, whereas others very a lot rely on persuasive presentation. Sir William Walton’s First Symphony is such a bit, one the place the complexities and ambiguities can clot into self-consciousness if carried out in a low-energy method. For that cause, it’s not a bit I might wish to hear led by sure conductors. But after I noticed that Vasily Petrenko can be doing it on this go to to the Cleveland Orchestra, I had excessive hopes of a dedicated efficiency.
The hopes have been well-founded. Petrenko continues to impress in his visits right here, which have included spectacular performances of Elgar, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Bartók and extra. He will not be the determine one instantly thinks of with Cleveland, which is understood for its patrician reserve. But the distinction between the ensemble’s poise and Petrenko’s hearth makes for a best-of-both-worlds mix, and this live performance was considered one of his greatest but.
It opened with a pleasant account of Elgar’s Cockaigne Overture, one other work that succeeds when the conductor retains its episodes targeted. Petrenko did that, however what’s so thrilling is that he has a method of discovering the music’s emotional really feel with out dropping that ahead momentum. It remains to be a bit startling to listen to a Russian conductor with such an idiomatic mastery of an English composer, however Petrenko has it. In his palms, Cockaigne had loads of excessive spirits, but wistfulness was by no means distant, and behind that lay Elgar’s darker shadows, solely fleetingly glimpsed. Petrenko’s means to convey this makes him probably the greatest Elgarians within the enterprise in the present day.
The power turned as much as eleven on a scale of 1 to 10 when Behzod Abduraimov joined for Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.2. The piece begins with misleading calm, however it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the piano passages bloomed into dissonant thickets. Abduraimov tore into it like a person possessed, fearlessly wrangling the difficulties whereas by no means forgetting to caress its uncommon moments of softness. Petrenko and the orchestra backed him to the hilt.
This was Abduraimov’s first efficiency downtown after a robust debut on the Blossom Festival in 2021. He is a formidable pianist, however to point out that he additionally has a humorousness, he performed Tchaikovsky’s ‘Neapolitan Song’ from the Children’s Album with a witty, breakneck coda. How he might play that flurry of notes after the calls for of the Prokofiev is past me. He will need to have fingers of metal.
After the intermission got here the Walton, with Petrenko savoring the music’s appreciable twists and turns. It is a piece that I’ve had some doubts about in much less energized performances, however Petrenko threw himself into it with abandon. At the identical time, he saved the lengthy arc of the music in thoughts, giving Walton’s adventures a long-term form.
Despite his hearth, Petrenko didn’t drive the orchestra mercilessly, permitting key solos resembling Frank Rosenwein’s oboe to bloom over the primary motion’s underlying nervous power. Particularly of curiosity (and a key a part of the lengthy arc) was the sense that Petrenko had thought by the harmonic progressions of the music and selected which notes to emphasise in Walton’s tonal however thorny chords. The waspish second motion was exhilarating, although the timpanist acquired a bar behind within the closing lash. It’s unlucky, however it occurs. I might fairly hear the occasional mishap than be at a secure efficiency which dangers nothing.
The gradual motion constructed steadily to its intense, unresolving peak, the strings digging in deeply. One of essentially the most well-known challenges is the finale, which nearly fully abandons the ambiguities of the more and more darkish previous actions in favor of a breezy brightness. This displays the hole of a 12 months in the course of the work’s composition, and Walton’s change of mindset after starting a brand new relationship.
Some performances attempt to make the finale match higher by pacing it broadly and underplaying its excessive spirits, however that solely hamstrings the complete piece. Instead, Petrenko took Walton at his phrase and performed it quick and buoyantly. It works this manner due to the reflective passage close to the tip that summons up recollections of the work’s earlier troubles, adopted by an nearly agonizing climb to the height of the mountain within the coda. It got here off brilliantly and was acquired with elation by the viewers.
Petrenko is turning into a favourite visitor in Cleveland, together with Jakub Hrůsa and Stéphane Denève, all of whom enrich the orchestra’s silvery sound with richer colours. The latter two convey boldness and heat, respectively, however Petrenko is the Prometheus of the bunch, bringing finely managed hearth.
Mark Sebastian Jordan