Cleveland Orchestra captures sound of sunlight

Akron Beacon Journal - December 17, 2007

by Elaine Gureglan

If you'd like to hear the sun rise, ask the Cleveland Orchestra. Given the music from Maurice Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe , they'll give you a Technicolor wonder.

Sunday afternoon, presented by Tuesday Musical in its annual Akron Concert, the orchestra closed its performance with suites No.1 and 2 from Ravel's ballet score. This orchestral writing trembled and rippled in fabulously detailed style. When it finally burst out into sumptuous, riotous color, the effect was splendid.

In an earlier interview, the guest conductor, Ilan Volkov, had spoken of the beauties of Ravel's writing, and how this French repertoire is enhanced by a bright, resonant hall like Symphony Hall in Boston. (Volkov previously served as assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony.) Happily, Sunday's performance defied the considerably less resonant acoustics of E.J. Thomas Hall. Ravel's trademark crescendos ripped through the hall like a sail whipping in the wind. The smooth blend of the strings, the majestic sweep of the full orchestra and the silvery arabesques of Joshua Smith's flute solos all made a gorgeous sonic impact.

Volkov,31, made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at Severance Hall earlier in the week, leading the same program. The Israli conductor is chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow.

It's hard to say whether Volkov was more suited to leading Daphnis or simply more attuned to the qualities of the hall by the second half of Sunday's program. The performance after intermission was characteristic of the remarkable unity of purpose usually found in the Cleveland Orchestra.

The program began with Tchaikovsky's The Tempest fantasy-overture, a piece that's closely related to the composer's Romeo and Juliet fantasy-overture. It was slow going, though, with Volkov not quite able to gauge the volume level. Effects that might sound subtle in Severance Hall were sometimes simply lost, and the orchestra didn't sound as secure as usual.

Michael Sachs, the orchestra's principal trumpet since 1988, was featured in the Estonian composre Eino Tamberg's Trumpet Concerto No. 1. This Russian-flavored work from 1972 borrows Shostakovich's rat-a-tat war pulse in the snare drum and marimba. It also takes something from Prokofiev's tense, staccato outburst. The American Samuel Barber also came to mind during radiant, peaceful interludes, not to mention during the small stabs of daring harmonies in an otherwise Romantic setting.

Sachs has a gorgeous tone that's firm enough to support an army of musical soldiers, and he fired off the staccato writing with rock-solid steadiness. It's always good to hear one of the orchestra's own players feaured, and Sachs is one of its best.