|
|
|
|
|
Akron Beacon Journal,
Ohio.com, 7 March 2008 |
By Elaine Guregian |
Mahler: Das Lied von
der Erde, Cleveland, 6 March 2008
|
Irritating buzzing impedes orchestra
|
|
|
High notes aside, neither of the
pieces on the Cleveland
Orchestra's program Thursday
night included a thin, piercing
tone that invaded the hall like
a bionic mosquito and refused to
quit. The sound buzzed through
Olivier Messiaen's And I Await
the Resurrection of the Dead, a
piece whose weird stateliness is
enough to distract you from any
ambient sound.
But by the time the orchestra
got through the first movement
of Mahler's Das Lied von der
Erde (The Song of the Earth),
music director Franz
Welser-Moest couldn't take it
anymore.
The conductor turned toward the
audience and politely noted that
''a whistling tone'' had been
quite audible and asked for it
to be turned off. Apparently no
one discovered the source of the
sound, which sounded like a
hearing aid that needed to be
adjusted. Welser-Moest stopped
again before the sixth movement
of the Mahler to ask again for
quiet.
He was polite about it, and it
was a reasonable request. The
Mahler work is built around
Chinese poetry, and it's often
scored as delicately as Chinese
calligraphy. The orchestra and
two vocal soloists had to work
extra hard to set the right mood
of contemplation for this work
about bidding farewell to life.
The English baritone Christopher
Maltman made a distinguished
Cleveland Orchestra debut in the
Mahler. He is an elegant
performer who brought the utmost
attentiveness to the text.
Maltman has sung at venues
including the Royal Opera House
Covent Garden and the
Metropolitan Opera, and is
scheduled to sing at the
Salzburg Festival. His
fastidiousness and beauty of
tone matched him well with
Cleveland's musicians.
The German tenor Jonas Kaufmann
has sung previously with
Cleveland. Thursday night, he
had the power to lift over the
orchestra's more rip-roaring
episodes in the Mahler. He was
at his best when the music
allowed him to sustain a line
and let his voice ring.
Having recently heard Pierre
Boulez conduct the orchestra, it
is tempting to wonder how he
would have handled Messiaen's
And I Await the Resurrection of
the Dead (Et exspecto
resurrectionem mortuorum), a
piece right up his alley.
Messiaen's music never hurries,
and this performance captured
the deliberate quality of his
writing. The blocky writing for
reedy winds combined with heavy
brass is a startling
combination. The players, lined
up in straight rows facing the
audience, nailed the screechy
chords that are stuffed with
extra harmonies, like an organ
gone crazy. Messiaen's deep
Catholic faith didn't stop him
from writing music that still
sounds wild today.
Even more clarity and more
sobriety are the qualities
Boulez might have brought to
this excellent performance. This
is music that doesn't ever try
to impress you with its
weirdness; it just presents its
strangeness as a matter of fact.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|